Writing slates, such as the one on display at the Nizhny Lomov Museum of Local Lore, were used in education until 1917. Children learned to write on such slates before notebooks became widespread. The slate was also named a blackboard because it was made of a black, solid material.

A writing slate was a flat plate about 20 millimeters thick, the size of a modern notebook. The slate displayed at the museum has a size of 25 by 18 centimeters. The slate was often placed in a wooden frame. Children wrote on the slate with a pencil or stick, which left marks on the surface.

The writing slate was first mentioned in writing in the late 14th century, in “A Treatise on the Astrolabe” by Geoffrey Chaucer. There are also references to its use in the 16th and 17th centuries. It is believed that writing slates were widely adopted in the late 18th century, during a period when shale deposits in Wales were developed, as well as the slate industry. In the 19th century, writing slates were used in almost every school. They were accompanied by a sponge or cloth for cleaning the surface.

Cabinetmakers produced countertops from slates. Sailors used them to calculate their geographical location at sea. Factory workers used slates to track manufactured goods. In the USSR, after the Great Patriotic War, there was a shortage of notebooks and writing materials, especially in remote areas. Instead of using notebooks, people wrote on slates and scraps of newspapers. Ink was made of furnace soot.

Writing slates can be seen in several paintings. For example, in “Portrait of Luca Pacioli and an Unknown Youth” attributed to Jacopo de’ Barbari, “Schoolgirl” by Karl Hermann Schellbach, as well as “Girl with Slate” and “Schoolboy with Slate” by Albert Anker.