Industry & Manufacturing

The Museum's collections document centuries of remarkable changes in products, manufacturing processes, and the role of industry in American life. In the bargain, they preserve artifacts of great ingenuity, intricacy, and sometimes beauty.

The carding and spinning machinery built by Samuel Slater about 1790 helped establish the New England textile industry. Nylon-manufacturing machinery in the collections helped remake the same industry more than a century later. Machine tools from the 1850s are joined by a machine that produces computer chips. Thousands of patent models document the creativity of American innovators over more than 200 years.

The collections reach far beyond tools and machines. Some 460 episodes of the television series Industry on Parade celebrate American industry in the 1950s. Numerous photographic collections are a reminder of the scale and even the glamour of American industry.

This cigar store Indian was used as an advertisement for D. F. Saylor’s Pennsylvania tobacco shop during the late 19th and early 20th century. The Indian holds a bundle of cigars in one hand and a tobacco leaf in the other.
Description
This cigar store Indian was used as an advertisement for D. F. Saylor’s Pennsylvania tobacco shop during the late 19th and early 20th century. The Indian holds a bundle of cigars in one hand and a tobacco leaf in the other. He stands on a four-sided pedestal that has writing on each side: “145/D. F. Saylor/Cigars, Tobacco, Candy”—“Smoke/50-50/Cigar”—“El Wadora/5¢/Cigar” and “Thank You! Call Again.” The pedestal also advertises a shoe shine. Indians were associated with tobacco since they introduced it to Europeans, and advertisers played upon these stereotypes to hawk their wares to illiterate consumers.
ID Number
CL.65.0993
catalog number
65.0993
accession number
256396

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