Holmgren-type colorblindness test
Date: circa 1925
Inventory Number: WJ1151
Classification: Color Blindness Apparatus
Subject:
Maker: American
Cultural Region:
Dimensions:
12.5 x 13 x 18 cm (4 15/16 x 5 1/8 x 7 1/16 in.)
Description:
The tin box contains 117 separately bundled and colored skeins of dyed worsted wool. Most have either a number or a letter attached to them. These markers were used to identify the colors in relation to a set of three different standards.
In Collection(s)
Signedunsigned
Inscribedon a piece of tape, handwritten: colorblindness / Holmgren Worstéds
FunctionThese bundles of wool were used to test for colorblindness. Frithiof Holmgren (1831-1897), a Swedish physiologist, invented this test after he suspected that a train engineer was colorblind, causing a well-publicized accident in 1876 in the town of Lagerlunda. Holmgren went on to test his theory on 266 employees of the Uppsala-Gäfle train line. He discovered indeed that 13 were colorblind. Holmgren's test became a reliable and standard routine check for railway and shipping employees.
For more information, see the following website at the University of Toronto.
For more information, see the following website at the University of Toronto.
Curatorial RemarksThese could have very well been manufactured by C. H. Stoelting of Chicago. See their 1931 trade catalogue here.
ProvenancePsychology Department, William James Hall, Harvard University.