08/11/2026
What kind of wheelchair is this❓
It looks like “invalid chairs” made and used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Forms of wheelchairs marketed toward caretakers and hospitals, they were meant to transport people who were ill.
They offered very little autonomy to those people. The goal was comfort, not mobility. It’s no wonder that wheelchair users, including President FDR, ended up inventing newer and better versions of the wheelchair!
Nowadays, manual wheelchairs are typically made of lightweight steel frames that can collapse in on themselves for easy storage and transportation.
“Taking a Closer Look at People and Items Lost to History “ Fort Walla Walla Museum holds lots of treasures in its collections. One such treasure is a wheelchair. We don’t know much about its individual history, but there are plenty of clues about its past.
