Teaching Abacus, or Numeral Frame
notes: label: Description
content: To teach children basic arithmetic, nineteenth century teachers used numeral frames like this one. They resemble a Russian abacus, in that beads move crosswise. However, each bead represents a unit digit (unlike the abacus, where beads in different rows or columns have different place values).
label: Description
content: Soldiers returning from Russia after the Napoleonic Wars introduced this kind of abacus into France. In England, teacher and educational reformer Samuel Wilderspin promoted its use. Educators from both France and England brought it to the U. S., where it began to sell commercially in the late 1820s.
label: Description
content: Some numeral frames were purchased and others homemade. The device was used to teach counting, simple addition, multiplication, and fractions. Most early numeral frames had 12 or 10 beads in a row. This one has 8 parallel copper wires, each with 18 beads. The instrument was used in Mexico. It came to the Smithsonian in 1979. There are no maker’s marks.
label: Description
content: Reference: P. A. Kidwell, Amy Ackerberg-Hastings, and D. L. Roberts, <I>Tools of American Mathematics Teaching</I>, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, pp. 87-104.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Mexico
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Mexicans
label: Subject
content: Latino
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Abacus
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Arithmetic Teaching
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.0693.01
label: catalog number
content: 1979.0693.01
label: accession number
content: 1979.0693
objectType: label: Object Name
content: numeral frame
label: Object Name
content: abacus
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 103 cm x 75 cm x 32 cm; 40 9/16 in x 29 17/32 in x 12 19/32 in