Set of Charts, Evans' Arithmetical Study

Around 1900 many American educators advocated the use of objects in teaching mathematics and the sciences. R. O. Evans Company of Chicago published this set of twenty chromolithographed charts. They were designed to apply the object method “to the entire subject of practical arithmetic.” The title chart shows a man in classical garb holding a diagram of the Pythagorean theorem and a pair of dividers, expounding to a child. Other instruments displayed include a pencil, a drawing pen, a magnetic compass, several geometric models, a globe, a telescope, two set squares, an hourglass, and one of Evans’s charts.

Charts include extensive commentary for teachers. There are sheets entitled Counting and Writing Numbers, Reviews and Colors, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division,. Other charts discuss Fractions, Weights and Measures, the Metric System, and Mensuration (one chart considers the measurement of flat surfaces, another one 3-dimensional solids). There also are charts on Business Methods (3 charts), Lumber and Timber Measure,Surveying, Percentage, Commercial and Legal Forms, and Book Keeping. A variety of objects are shown.

The paper, cloth-backed charts are held together at the top by a piece of fabric that is tacked to a wooden backing. This backing slides into an oak case decorated with machine-made molding and panels. A mark on the case reads: This is the (/) Property of (/) F. C. Adams (/) Hillsboro N. H. (/) May 28 - 1902 (/) Loaned to (/) Miss L. Hany (?) (/) Teacher School Dist. No. 17. F.C. Adams is probably Freeman C. Adams (1845-1913) of Hillsborough and Manchester, N.H. This suggests that this particular example of Evans’ Arithmetical Study was used by a woman who taught at a school in New Hampshire.

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