Unfortunately, a lack of recorded contemporary information, such as about how the object was designed, manufactured, and used, makes ConsulвЂ™s physical construction and accompanying packaging the best available sources, as is often the case in object studies.

Footnote 10 With these approaches in mind, a calculating monkey becomes a guide to the mathematics, education, and playthings of a century-old culture. According to Samuel Alberti, objects must be placed in their world of people and ideas, as productions of a culture and not as isolated items. Footnote 9 Everything about objects is significant, but interpreting what exactly is вЂsignifiedвЂ™ requires in-depth understanding of objectsвЂ™ contexts. Lorraine Daston asserts that вЂthinking with things is very different from thinking with words, for the relationship between sign and signified is never arbitrary вЂ“ nor self-evidentвЂ™. Objects act as historical culture-carriers that offer unique insights into past lifestyles. Consul embodies these cultural trends by providing fun ways to learn arithmetic and by bringing mathematics into the home as well as school. The monkey distracts from the complexity of the mechanical design and number charts that achieve the calculations, while bringing to mind the whimsy of performing animals. Footnote 7 As mathematical material culture, it includes the manually operated design of mechanical calculators Footnote 8 but with a consumer-friendly appearance. Footnote 6 Its use by one individual at a time fits the contemporary theories of learning as hands-on and child-directed, based on the philosophies of Johan Pestalozzi, Maria Montessori, and John Dewey. Its invention coincides with the rise of public education and Progressivism in the United States.

In addition to solutions to arithmetic problems, Consul offers a glimpse into twentieth-century views about education. As an additional touch of charm, next to the number 12 is a small empty square, signifying the вЂsquareвЂ™ of the number chosen for the other foot.ДЇigure 11.2 RobertsonвЂ™s вЂCalculating DeviceвЂ™ patent diagram (left, granted 1918) and вЂToyвЂ™ patent diagram (right, granted 1916). As a fun surprise, as ConsulвЂ™s head approaches its ankles to multiply far-flung numbers such as 1 and 12, the metal bar connecting its hands and torso sticks up over the monkeyвЂ™s head, transforming into a strikingly realistic tail painted with brown and black furry stripes. The monkeyвЂ™s pose can be rather gymnastically grotesque for certain calculations. The device groans as you gently coax its resistant feet into position, but the rest of ConsulвЂ™s body moves with the precise coordination of a dancer. Footnote 2 If you position the monkeyвЂ™s feet to point at two numbers in a row of 1вЂ“12, letвЂ™s say 4 and 8, then the monkeyвЂ™s metal-pin joints force its arms and torso to change position until its hands cradle the two numbersвЂ™ product printed on the backplate: 32. вЂвЂњConsulвЂќ, the Educated MonkeyвЂ™ is a 14 cm Г— 15 cm metal backplate printed with a number chart, to which is attached a moveable monkey figure, wearing a suit and bow tie and made of thin enamelled steel ( Figure 11.1). This unusual amalgamation offers us a window into the world that made and used it, including how people thought about mathematics, education, and childhood. Here I investigate the tacit and explicit meanings of an object in the Whipple MuseumвЂ™s collection that is at once a mechanical calculator and a depiction of a monkey. They can be difficult for those of different generations to interpret or even recognise nonetheless, objects offer silent witness to bygone cultural moments. The values of an era are embedded in objects.

High school math teacher desktop toys