This talk explores the history of the handheld electronic calculator in American culture, as suggested by an ongoing examination of surviving examples in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution. During the first half of the 1970s, with the advent of inexpensive microprocessors, the electronic calculator became commonplace. Arithmetic, which had been regarded by nineteenth century mathematicians such as Frederick P. Barnard of Columbia University as “toil of pure intelligence,” could be performed routinely by instruments that cost only a few dollars. In the 1980s, with the advent of programming graphing calculators, the new technology attracted the attention of college and university mathematics teachers, and inspired discussions of curriculum reform.