Post 2: National Roller Skating Museum

Post 2: National Museum of Roller Skating

Upon entering the National Museum of Roller Skating I was very unsure of what I was about to encounter. Once I walked in I had to go through a maze of office cubicles until I found the door to the museum. The museum was just a small room, but it was bursting with information. I saw a model of the first roller skate ever invented which was in the 1760’s. It looked more like a roller blade than what we think of as a roller skate, and this particular skate was very unconventional because it wasn’t able to turn. In 1863 the first skate that could turn was invented; it changed from the four wheels in a row to two wheels on each side. There were many roller skates invented before the one that we use today. I saw some roller skates with wheels on the side of your shoe, some that had planks go up the side of your leg, and one that only had one large wheel under your shoe.
The thing that most frequently changed was the wheel. Wheel placement and type were always being experimented with. How many wheels on the bottom, what order they went in were being experimented with for 100 years. There was a wall with all the types of wheels used throughout the years. The wheel types went from metal, to wood, back to metal, and also to the plastic material that we use today.
Roller skating started to take a bigger role in society in the 1950’s and increased with interest until the roller disco movement in the 1970’s. It has since declined in interest but is still known as a fun family activity. I know that personally school skates were still a big deal when I was in elementary school. Many sports have also tried to be played on roller skates. They played soccer with roller skates on and also basketball. In the 1880’s a game of “roller polo,” was played. It is like hockey but on roller skates instead of ice skates. People still play that sport today but it is known as roller hockey. There is also professional roller skating that is much like competitive figure skating. They compete in twosomes and foursomes on the U.S. team. Although roller skating isn’t as popular as it once was it is an important pastime in America’s history.