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Historically there have been many barriers to accessibility. Some barriers are physical, like a lack of ramps. Other obstacles are ideological, like preferring job candidates who look, sound, or move a certain way. These three objects highlight the struggle of seeking an education in a system that is structurally ableist in addition to enabling other forms of discrimination.
This image depicts the interior title page of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Manual for the Third Revision. At the top left is a grayscale illustration of a bell curve. The title is above a bold line and the author and printer information is below in a smaller typeface.
Lewis M. Terman and A. Merrill, Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Manual, 1960. Courtesy of Yale Manuscripts and Archives
Currently in its 5th edition, this test was revised from the Simon-Binet Intelligence test created in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in France in order to identify children who were believed to have intellectual disabilities. In 1916, Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman created the American version of the test and named it the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test.
Emerging during the height of the Eugenics Era in the United States, the test was utilized in the testing of Army recruits during WWI, and since, has been used in an array of setting such as schools and universities to assess for intelligence levels. The five weighted factors in the test are knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory and fluid reasoning. This 1960 manual was the 3rd edition of the test and released in 1960.
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This photograph shows a rectangular wooden box on a table. The box has a hinged lid that can be raised as a divider, as well as brass and wooden keys, tiny light bulbs, and a small plug.
These two black-and-white photographs show the testing machine at work. Two white men in suits sit across from one another at a table. Between them is the testing machine with the divider raised.
Battery-operated multiple choice apparatus, circa 1911-1913. Peabody Museum’s History of Science and Technology Collection. Courtesy of Yale Peabody Museum.
Robert Mearns Yerkes (1876-1947) was a comparative psychologist at both Yale and Harvard University during the first half of the 20th century. This battery operated multiple choice testing machine was built by Yerkes between 1911 and 1913 when he worked at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital.
Yerkes developed the machine to test the intelligence of his patients. The tester would sit on one side of the machine and use the wooden and brass keys to create a pattern according to Yerkes' instruction. The patient would sit on the other side and attempt to replicate the pattern.
As a prominent member of the American Eugenic Society, Yerkes used the results to influence restrictive federal immigration policies in the 1910s and 20s. Although not supported by his findings, Yerkes claimed the test demonstrated the inferiority of immigrants. He published his results in 1921 in the Journal of Comparative Psychology. Yerkes was influential in the production of other intelligence tests and supported their use by the U.S. Army during World War I.
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