Object ID:
1992.65
Title:
Writing frame and guide
Description:
Item has adapted frame of office clipboard; horizontal guidelines embossed on heavy off-white paper board; guide string with sliding blue-striped straw fits into notches on sides of board, tension applied to string on back of board by rubber band; standard nickel plated clip, stamped "NATIONAL," riveted to top of brown Masonite board; handwritten in blue ink on reverse of the paper board, clipboard, "Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, Mass."; stamped in black ink, "Howe Press".
Date:
n.d.
Made by:
Howe Press, Perkins School for the Blind; National Blank Book Company
Place of Origin:
Watertown, MA; Holyoke, MA
Provenance:
The Perkins/Howe Press sold a "grooved writing card" as early as 1867. In a 1951 article in the International Journal for the Education of the Blind, Ruby Hamrick wrote, "…Perkins gets the credit for the development of the writing "board" used in square handwriting. The "board" or card, has been in use there since the days of Helen Keller. The card is a washboard effect with raised sections between the grooves wider than the grooves themselves. A pencil is used on regular typing paper clipped to this grooved card."
Credit Line:
Museum Collection, 1992.65