Little Scholar Spelling and Counting Board by Bar-Zim: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This teaching device was designed for students to move blocks with letters on tracks to assemble words or even sentences in the middle two center tracks, and on the rear side to move numbers and operators around for elementary math equations. This is 12'x12" hard-pressed, double sided cardboard board has 31 wooden tiles with letters on one side and numbers on the other side. The letter side as a border of 28 yellow squares with images of common objects and the word spelled under the image.

Little Scholar Spelling and Counting Board was manufactured by Bar-Zim Manufacturing Company. Bar-Zim Toy manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York City with capital stock of $8,000 by Harry Zimmerman, William Bartholomae, and Abraham B. Wolpin in May of 1916. The company moved its headquarters to New Jersey in October 1938 and held numerous patents and trademarks for games and toys throughout much of the 20th Century. The company was dissolved July 13, 1971.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1950-1960
• maker: Bar-Zim Toy Manufacturers
• Object Name: spelling and counting board
• Object Type: educational toys
• Physical Description: cardboard; wood; metal; ink (overall material)
• Physical Description: blue; red; white; yellow (overall color)
• Measurements: overall: 12 in x 12 in x 1/4 in; 30.48 cm x 30.48 cm x .635 cm
• place made: United States: New Jersey, Jersey City
• ID Number: 2016.0041.02
• catalog number: 2016.0041.02
• accession number: 2016.0041
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.