Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Abacus |
Object Number |
1979.031.002 |
Description |
CM 549 Abacus |
Provenance |
Original museum documentation states: Chinese Sam's abacus board (about 1900). Sam was born in China and in the 1870s (then a young man) worked as butter maker at farm of widowed Jane Evans. He later (1900) worked for Jane's son, Al, and grew potatoes on a "share crop" basis. Sam died in the mid-1930s at the Evans Farm (aged in his late eighties). Of the many Chinese men who had been employed at the Evans farm, the most memorable was "Sam". He was known to four generations of the family, and lived most of his life on the property. Sam arrived from Yale. An ancient form of calculator, the abacus can be used to perform calculations by sliding counters along rods or grooves. Sam died in the mid-1930s, aged about 90. He had longed to return to his birthplace in China, but explained that by sending money to his relatives in the Orient, they were considered "well to do" by Chinese standards. Sam's abacus, kept as a memento by the Evans family, is an example of a calculator still in use throughout Asia. |
Year Range from |
1900 |
Year Range to |
1935 |