Early I.Q. TestThis colorful assemblage was discovered in a storage area maintained by Kansas Historical Society staff. The mystery item required some curatorial sleuthing, as its purpose was not immediately evident.
The kit includes two square panels printed with a total of 11 separate pictures which portray a sequence of events from one day in a boy's life. Each illustration has a pocket for a missing image which completes the story being told by the picture. The missing object often is the focal point for characters in the illustration. For example, the first picture in the sequence shows the featured boy sitting on the edge of an unmade bed, wearing only one shoe, and reaching for an unknown item on the floor (see illustration at center, left). Along with the two larger picture panels, the kit includes 60 one-inch-square pieces to be inserted into the panels' pockets. These pieces offer a variety of images designed to complete the story being told on the panels. Unfortunately, the boxed set does not contain a manual. The only text printed on the kit reads "C. H. Stoelting Co., Chicago, Ill.," with a copyright date of 1918. The box lid identifies the contents as "Healy No. 2." Museum curators first turned to the Internet to uncover the kit's function. A quick search found a site for the Stoelting Company, still operating in Chicago. Staff contacted Dr. David Madsen, the company's vice president for psychological testing, who confirmed suspicions that the kit was an early intelligence quotient (I.Q.) test. More specifically, Healy Test No. 2 is a "picture context instrument" designed to test cognitive abilities through non-verbal means. The test's original manual, found in the Stoelting archives by Dr. Madsen, gives explicit directions on its administration, even suggesting the exact words to be spoken to the tested individual: 
"'Here is a picture - it begins here' (pointing to demonstration picture) 'where the boy is getting dressed. It shows the same boy, remember, the same boy, doing one thing after another during the same day.' (Point along the first row, then along the second, to indicate clearly the sequence in which the pictures come.) 'You see in each picture a piece is missing. Here' (pointing to them) 'are a lot of small pieces, they fit in any of the spaces. But there are more pieces than you can use. The point is to pick out the piece that you think is needed, that is best, to complete the sense of the picture. For instance, What is gone here?' (pointing to demonstration picture). 'Yes, a shoe.' If incorrect answer is given, which is very rare, Examiner says, 'No, he is dressing and he is stooping for his other shoe.' 'Now, which is the shoe that he must have?' If correct shoe is selected Examiner says 'Yes. This one' (pointing to low shoe) 'wouldn't be right because he must have a high shoe to match the other one.'" "'Now, that is the way each is to be done. There is always some piece that is the very best one; you can tell which it is by studying the picture. Now go ahead.' The main point is to give no help after the first explanation." The I.Q. test's pictures tell a story in narrative style, each scene building on the previous one. The picture panels gradually increase in difficulty, and some of the picture pieces are nearly identical. Subtle differences in the pieces can make some of the illustrations quite difficult to complete correctly. Twenty minutes are allowed to complete the test. William Healy, the test's developer, claimed in the manual that "one of the most brilliant men in America took the full 20 minutes and wanted more in which to finish . . . finally leaving a piece in place that gave a total score of 90." The perfect score is 100, tallied by adding up numbers printed on the backs of the small pieces. Healy observes in the manual that perfection was achieved only occasionally by "youngsters of high ability . . . and by some adults who have established reputations for achievement, and then records have been equaled very rarely indeed by others, for instance, by a domestic cook . . . [who] was found to be well known as having exceptionally good common sense and judgment." 
The world's first intelligence test was developed in 1905 by Alfred Binet of France, primarily to identify and classify cases of mental retardation. I.Q. tests became especially popular during World War I (1914-1918) when they were used to rapidly assess and classify large numbers of men. Non-verbal I.Q. tests were important during this war because the majority of recruits were functionally illiterate. The tests also were used in peacetime on people who were non-English speaking or hearing impaired. The Stoelting Company was founded around 1886 and is probably the oldest psychological testing company still in existence in the United States. The company's earliest products included research instruments as well as psychological tests, both primarily used by colleges and universities. Healy Test No. 2 was still available, but no longer widely used, into the 1980s. Today, most Stoelting products are purchased by elementary schools. A number of different nonverbal I.Q. tests are marketed for those who are speech or hearing impaired, non-English-speaking, or have cognitive disabilities.
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