Professor Burlingame's Cubical Blocks

Herman Burlingame was a professor at Brockport Normal School from 1868 - 1891. He was in charge of mathematical instruction, and also served as librarian for a number of years. One interesting product of his time here was the set of blocks that he designed and sold to aid in the instruction of doing cube roots. Such sets were common in the 19th century, as a way of helping visualize the process with the use of the blocks.

Shown here is a set of Professor Burlingame's "Cubical Blocks" which are part of the collections of the Alumni House.