Toy Abacus: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

In the 1950s, tools long used to communicate elementary ideas about counting and arithmetic moved from the classroom into the home. The numeral frame, which resembles a Russian abacus, was brought to the United States from Europe in the 1820s, and used in many classrooms to communicate basic arithmetic concepts to groups of students.

By the mid-20th century, numeral frames were sold for use by young children in the home. This brightly painted example has a wooden frame, five metal horizontal cross rods, and a metal support at the back. Each cross rod carries 10 sliding wooden beads. The toy was designed to teach elementary counting, addition, subtraction, and simple fractions. The object is marked: Royal (/) Tot (/) EDUCATIONAL (/) TOY. It also is marked: Box No. 1450. There is a cardboard box. This numeral frame was sold by a pharmacy in Sherman, N.Y., and cost $1.00.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1950s
• Object Name: abacus
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 21.5 cm x 33.5 cm x 2.02 cm; 8 7/16 in x 13 3/16 in x 13/16 in
• Measurements: box: 21.8 cm x 35 cm x 2.3 cm; 8 9/16 in x 13 3/4 in x 7/8 in
• Subject: Mathematics
• ID Number: 2002.3058.01
• catalog number: 2002.3058.01
• nonaccession number: 2002.3058
• 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.