About the object

This original slate board was used by students to record their school work. The dark grey surface is polished slate rock. The frame is timber. The label at the top says 'Collins Cambria Slate'.

A narrow cylindrical slate pencil was used  to write on the slate board. It was also made of slate rock. In some schools slate pencils were encased in metal slate pencil holders.

The slate board can be written on both sides. It is erased by rubbing it out with a finger or a rag.

Some slates had etched guidelines on the surface , sometimes made with a ruler and metal nail.

The NSW 1880 Course of Instruction stated that 1st Class students worked exclusively on slates. They sat on timber benches and balanced them on their knees.

2nd to 5th Class students used slates for first drafts and working out. Work was often then copied into their exercise book for marking.

Slate boards have been used for many centuries. They were used in NSW schools to the early 1900s when there became a greater focus on hygiene.  Due to the 'spit and rub' method of erasing slates, they were considered unhygienic. In NSW they were phased out from the 1905 New Era of Education. 

Significance

Intact original slate boards are quite rare as the slate can become brittle with age and shatter. Slate boards provide evidence of: 

• early writing technologies used in schools

• an economical, durable and reusable resource for writing

• materials used in school equipment produced at the time.

Object details

Date – circa 1890

Creator – unknown

Place – unknown

Materials – slate, timber

Dimensions – 23cm x 35cm

See

• What do you notice first? 

• What would the surface of the slate board feel like?

• Does it remind you of something you use at home or school?

Think

• Would a slate board be heavy or light? Why do you think that?

• What could be other uses of slate boards than just arithmetic and writing?

• Why do you think work was copied neatly from a slate board into an exercise book?

Slate pencils

Original slate pencils were long narrow cylinders with a pointy sharp tip on one end. Some had paper wrapped around one end.  In some places cheap rough-cut square-edged slate pencils were also available.

Some schools purchased metal slate pencil holders for their students to use. A short piece of slate pencil could be inserted into it. They were easier for students to hold and they enabled short pieces of slate to be used until there was very little left.

A slate pencil was written directly onto the board. It created a fine grey line and was erased with a finger or a rag.

• What might it sound like to write with a slate pencil on a slate board? 

Writing objects video

View the YouTube video to learn about some objects used for writing at school in  the past.

• How are these writing objects of the past similar and different to what you use for writing today?

• What do you wonder about these objects?