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.

As energy prices soared in the 1970s, lamp makers focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. A great deal of effort by many researchers went into designing small fluorescent lamps that might replace a regular incandescent lamp.
Description
As energy prices soared in the 1970s, lamp makers focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. A great deal of effort by many researchers went into designing small fluorescent lamps that might replace a regular incandescent lamp. These efforts led to modern compact fluorescent lamps that use bent or connected tubes, but many other designs were tried. This experimental "partition lamp" from 1978 shows one such design.
Soon after the 1939 introduction of linear fluorescent lamps, inventors began receiving patents for smaller lamps. But they found that the small designs suffered from low energy efficiency and a short life-span. Further research revealed that energy efficiency in fluorescent lamps depends in part on the distance the electric current travels between the two electrodes, called the arc path. A long arc path is more efficient than a short arc path. That's why fluorescent tubes in stores and factories are usually 8 feet (almost 3 meters) long.
Inventors in the 1970s tried many ways of putting a long arc path into a small lamp. In this case there are thin glass walls inside the lamp, dividing it into four chambers. Each chamber is connected in such a way that the electric current travels the length of the lamp four times when moving from one electrode to the other. So the arc path is actually four times longer than the lamp itself, raising the energy efficiency of the lamp. This unit was made by General Electric for experiments on the concept, though other makers were also working on partition lamps.
While the partition design works, it proved to be expensive to manufacture and most lamp makers decided to use thin tubes that could be easily bent and folded while being made.
Lamp characteristics: No base. Two stem assemblies each have tungsten electrodes in a CCC-6 configuration with emitter. Welded connectors, 3-piece leads with lower leads made of stranded wire. Bottom-tipped, T-shaped envelope with internal glass partition that separates the internal space into four connected chambers. Partition is made of two pieces of interlocked glass and is not sealed into the envelope. All glass is clear. No phosphors were used since the experimenter wanted to study the arc path.
Date made
ca 1978
date made
ca. 1978
maker
General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
ID Number
1998.0050.16
accession number
1998.0050
catalog number
1998.0050.16
Ordinary lamps give good quality light and can be designed for all manner of special tasks. However, they waste a tremendous amount of energy in the form of heat.
Description
Ordinary lamps give good quality light and can be designed for all manner of special tasks. However, they waste a tremendous amount of energy in the form of heat. The steep rise in energy prices during the 1970s spurred a burst of invention aimed at developing lamps that gave more lumens per watt—the lighting equivalent of miles per gallon in cars.
Much of the invention took place in the laboratories of major lighting companies like General Electric and Sylvania. But inventors outside the corporate labs also offered ideas and new devices. One such inventor was Donald Hollister of California. A UCLA graduate with experience in plasma physics, Hollister patented a small fluorescent lamp called the "Litek." The lamp seen here is a hand-made prototype from 1979.
Most fluorescent lamps, large and small, operate by passing an electric current through a gas between two electrodes. The current energizes the gas that in turn radiates ultraviolet (UV) light. The UV is converted to visible light by a coating of phosphors inside the glass envelope of the lamp. Electrodes are responsible for much of the energy lost in a fluorescent lamp and are usually the part of the lamp that fails. Hollister's design was "electrodeless," and used high-frequency radio waves instead of electrodes to energize the gas.
The Litek lamp worked in the laboratory, and Hollister received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to refine the design. That proved more difficult than expected though. The electronic components available at the time were expensive and generated too much heat. Hollister tried to compensate with the massive heat-dissipation fins set below the bulb, but this added to the cost. Also, as an independent inventor Hollister could not just focus on research. He had to perform administrative tasks that researchers in corporate labs did not, and the project lagged. In the end the Litek did not reach the market, though in the 1990s the major companies all began selling electrodeless fluorescent lamps. These built on the work of several inventors, including Hollister's.
Lamp characteristics: Nickle-plated brass medium-screw base shell with brass retainer and plastic skirt. The base insulator is part of skirt. A metal fitting attaches to the skirt to dissipate heat. Tipped, G-shaped envelope with phosphor coating on inner wall and clear tip.
Date made
1979
maker
Hollister, Donald
ID Number
1992.0466.01
catalog number
1992.0466.01
accession number
1992.0466
Beginning in the early 1960s, American auto manufacturers responded to a wave of imported compacts and subcompacts that reached 20 percent of domestic new car sales by 1971.
Description
Beginning in the early 1960s, American auto manufacturers responded to a wave of imported compacts and subcompacts that reached 20 percent of domestic new car sales by 1971. The Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Falcon, and Plymouth Valiant were introduced in 1960, followed by the AMC Gremlin in 1970 and Ford Pinto in 1971. General Motors introduced the Vega as a 1971 model. Like other domestic small cars, the Vega was attractive and handled well, but mechanical quality and reliability were disappointing. On early models, the aluminum-alloy engine block overheated and expanded, valves leaked, and body corrosion was a problem. General Motors was able to correct these defects in later model years, and the Vega became a popular model that made money. This turnaround marked a reawakening of the American auto industry to the need to manage design, performance, and quality-control issues and compete more successfully with imported cars.
By the 1970s, many American motorists discovered the advantages of subcompacts and hatchbacks. Convenient, easy to drive, and economical to own and operate, domestic and imported subcompacts offered expanded opportunities for driving, commuting, and carrying goods. Many were used as second cars. The shift to subcompacts made families more mobile, and greater fuel efficiency offset the effects of gasoline shortages and price increases. This 1977 Vega hatchback was Guenther Sommer's second car; he and his wife, Siewchin Yong Sommer, drove a 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix convertible as their primary transportation. Mr. Sommer used this Vega to haul building materials at his home on Long Island. By removing all seats except the driver's seat, he converted the Vega to a small truck and even used it while building a new house. In 2001, he reinstalled the carefully preserved seats and donated the car to the Smithsonian.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1977
maker
General Motors Corporation
ID Number
2001.0168.01
accession number
2001.0168
catalog number
2001.0168.01
The sternwheel steamer Valley Belle was built as a packet boat at Harmar, Ohio, in 1883. It measured 127.4’ long by 22.9’ in beam and a shallow 3.4’ in draft.
Description
The sternwheel steamer Valley Belle was built as a packet boat at Harmar, Ohio, in 1883. It measured 127.4’ long by 22.9’ in beam and a shallow 3.4’ in draft. As a packet delivering people, cargo and the mails, the Belle worked for decades along several rivers from the Ohio to the Kanawha in West Virginia. In 1891, the Belle transported 8,320 tons of cargo and 6,241 passengers along the Ohio River.
In 1917, the Valley Belle was operating along the Ohio River between Marietta and Middleport, Ohio. In March 1919 it was purchased by Billy Bryant of the famous showboating family. Bryant had just built a fancy new showboat and needed a larger towboat than they owned to tow it.
The Belle towed Bryant’s New Showboat for several years down the Kanawha, Ohio, Monongahela, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers before being replaced by a smaller boat. Competition from movie theaters had shortened the range of the showboats, which were forced to go to ever-smaller and more remote towns for willing audiences. The Belle continued to tow on various rivers until 1943, when it sank in the Ohio River at Kanauga, Oh. Its career as a wooden-hulled river steamer in nearly continuous use for 60 years is unmatched.
Date made
1970
ID Number
TR.330213
catalog number
330213
accession number
288672
This medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut during the 1860s. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today.
Description (Brief)
This medal was made by the Scovill Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut during the 1860s. The Scovill Company was established in 1802 as a button manufacturer and is still in business today. Scovill was an early industrial American innovator, adapting armory manufacturing processes to mass-produce a variety of consumer goods including buttons, daguerreotype mats, and campaign medals.
Obverse: Bust of Abraham Lincoln facing right. The legend reads: ABR'M LINCOLN/ A FOE TO TRAITORS.
Reverse: Legend reads: NO COMPROMISE WITH ARMED REBELS/ MAY THE UNION FLOURISH.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1960
depicted
Lincoln, Abraham
maker
Scovill Manufacturing Company
ID Number
1981.0296.1298
accession number
1981.0296
catalog number
1981.0296.1298
The James R. Barker was built in 1976 by the American Shipbuilding Co. at Lorain, OH for the Interlake Steamship Co. It was named after the head of the Moore-McCormack Steamship Company, which owned Interlake.
Description
The James R. Barker was built in 1976 by the American Shipbuilding Co. at Lorain, OH for the Interlake Steamship Co. It was named after the head of the Moore-McCormack Steamship Company, which owned Interlake. Costing over $43 million, Barker was the third 1000-footer to sail the Great Lakes, and the first built entirely on the Lakes. These big bulk coal and ore carriers were constructed to fit the largest locks connecting the Great Lakes.
Barker's two big 8,000-hp engines turn two 17-1/2-foot propellers, pushing the vessel at a speed of 15.75 knots (18 mph). The ship can transport 59,000 tons of iron ore pellets or 52,000 tons of coal. The self-unloading rig has a 250-foot-long boom that can unload 10,000 tons of ore or 6,000 net tons of coal per hour. By contrast, Interlake’s first bulk carrier, the 1874 wooden-hulled steamer V.H. Ketchum, could carry only 1,700 tons of ore and took nearly twelve days to unload using manual wheelbarrows.
The Barker was still in service in 2009.
Date made
1978
year the James R. Barker was built
1976
built James R. Barker
American Shipbuilding Co.
bought the James R. Barker
Interlake Steamship Co.
maker
Boucher-Lewis Precision Models, Inc.
ID Number
TR.336153
catalog number
336153
accession number
1978.0374
The Mississippi River sidewheel steamboat J.M. White was built at Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1878 for the Greenville and New Orleans Packet Company. Measuring 321’ long and 91’ in beam across the paddlebox guards, the White only sat 10’-6” deep in the water when fully laden.
Description
The Mississippi River sidewheel steamboat J.M. White was built at Jeffersonville, Ind., in 1878 for the Greenville and New Orleans Packet Company. Measuring 321’ long and 91’ in beam across the paddlebox guards, the White only sat 10’-6” deep in the water when fully laden. The steamboat was designed for Mississippi River packet service between New Orleans, La., and Greenville, Miss.
The White was one of the largest, most expensive, luxurious, and most powerful river steamers ever built, with 2,800 horsepower and a capacity of 250 first-class passengers and 10,000 bales of cotton. Named after famous riverboat captain J. M. White (1823–1880), the “supreme triumph in cotton boat architecture” was a masterpiece of the gaudy, glamorous style known as “steamboat Gothic.” It had multiple bridal chambers; stained glass skylights and windows; rare wood veneers and gilded finishes; seven gilded “Egyptian-style” chandeliers; a sterling silver Tiffany water cooler in the 250’-long main cabin; monogrammed flatware and china; and a full concert grand piano.
The White spent most of its eight-year career in service on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Vicksburg, Miss. Despite its economy of size, the White’s high initial $220,000 cost, a spotty economy, and the rapidly expanding railroad network made the steamboat unprofitable. It caught fire, blew up, and burned to the waterline at a Louisiana landing in December 1886, killing several aboard.
Date made
1974
built
1878
used date
late 19th century
ID Number
TR.334847
catalog number
334847
accession number
315419
As energy prices soared in the 1970s, General Electric, like other lamp makers, focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps.
Description
As energy prices soared in the 1970s, General Electric, like other lamp makers, focused research efforts on raising the energy efficiency of electric lamps. One research program conducted by John Anderson at the GE Corporate Research and Development Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, sought to make a small fluorescent lamp that might replace a regular incandescent lamp.
Most fluorescent lamps, large and small, operate by passing an electric current through a gas between two electrodes. The current energizes the gas that in turn radiates ultraviolet (UV) light. The UV is converted to visible light by a coating of phosphors inside the glass envelope of the lamp. Electrodes are responsible for much of the energy lost in a fluorescent lamp and are usually the part of the lamp that fails. Instead of electrodes, Anderson's design used a donut-shaped, ferrite (an iron oxide compound) to generate an electric field. The field energized the gas.
He called his design a Solenoidal Electric Field (SEF) lamp. The one seen here is an experimental unit made around 1978. While the lamp worked in the lab, the electronics to control it were expensive and generated heat that needed to be dissipated. As with other electrodeless lamps, radio-frequency interference was a concern. By the early 1980s GE decided to shelve the SEF lamp and market a miniature metal-halide lamp instead. In the late 1990s, however, GE took advantage of the lower cost and higher capability of electronic components and marketed an electrodeless lamp that built on prior work—including the SEF lamp.
Lamp characteristics: No base. A 1.5" (outside dia.) toroid-shaped ferrite is mounted vertically inside the lamp and held in place by a wire cradle. The conducting wire is insulated with woven nylon and wrapped ten turns around the top of the ferrite. A woven nylon mat is wrapped around the ferrite under the conductor, and another is placed between the conductor and the top-plate of the mount-cradle. A metal lead extends from the bottom of the ferrite into the exhaust-tip where it spirals around a metal cylinder. Tipless, AT-shaped envelope.
Date made
ca 1978
date made
ca. 1978
maker
General Electric Corporate Research & Development Laboratory
ID Number
1998.0050.07
accession number
1998.0050
catalog number
1998.0050.07
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1975-03-07
photographer
Regan, Ken
ID Number
2014.0112.134
catalog number
2014.0112.134
accession number
2014.0112
In 1974 economist Art Laffer sketched a new direction for the Republican Party on this napkin. Displeased with President Gerald Ford’s decision to raise taxes to control inflation, four men got together at a Washington, DC restaurant to think about alternatives.
Description
In 1974 economist Art Laffer sketched a new direction for the Republican Party on this napkin. Displeased with President Gerald Ford’s decision to raise taxes to control inflation, four men got together at a Washington, DC restaurant to think about alternatives. Laffer was joined by journalist Jude Wanniski and politicians Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. Laffer argued that lowering taxes would increase economic activity. Wanniski popularized the theory, and politicians Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney carried it out.
The cloth napkin was taken as a souvenir by Jude Wanniski. The napkin reads “If you tax a product less results/If you subsidize a product more results./We've been taxing work, output and income and subsidizing non-work, leisure and un-/employment./The consequences are obvious!” with an image of the laffer curve in the middle. The bottom of the napkin reads To Don Rumsfeld/at our Two Continents/Rendezvous/ 9/13/74/Art B. Laffer"
date made
1974-09-14
ID Number
2013.0041.01
catalog number
2013.0041.01
accession number
2013.0041
Bryant’s New Showboat was built at Point Pleasant, W. Va., in 1917. Launched in 1918, it could seat around 880 people in its theater.
Description
Bryant’s New Showboat was built at Point Pleasant, W. Va., in 1917. Launched in 1918, it could seat around 880 people in its theater. Most of the shows put on for Bryant’s patrons in small towns along the Kanawha, Ohio, Monongahela, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers were vaudeville or follies productions.
The ornate stage of Bryant’s New Showboat was home to dozens of plays like Hamlet and Little Nell of the Ozarks, and even the antics of a trained bucking mule named January. Owner Billy Bryant offered $10 to anyone who could stay on the animal’s back, but he had to retract that offer in mining towns, as the miners were strong enough to stay on.
The vessel was sold to new owners in 1945, at the end of World War II. Movie theaters, personal automobiles and other developments had gradually ended the colorful showboat era on America’s rivers.
Date made
1976
ID Number
TR.335568
catalog number
335568
accession number
1977.0630
This self-inking lever press was made by the Kelsey Press Company of Meriden, Connecticut in about 1970.
Description (Brief)
This self-inking lever press was made by the Kelsey Press Company of Meriden, Connecticut in about 1970. The press has a height of 14 inches a width of 9 inches and a length of 17 inches; its chase measures 3 inches by 5 inches.
This press was acquired from the manufacturer in about 1973 by the Museum Docents for public demonstration on a hand cart.
Transferred from the Museum Docents Program, 1995.
Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
about 1970
circa 1970
date made
ca 1970
maker
Kelsey Press Company
ID Number
1995.0283.01
catalog number
1995.0283.01
accession number
1995.0283
This blue and black lenticular card has a ruler along the top edge. When viewed at one angle, a centimeter ruler is divided to millimeters and numbered by ones from 1 to 15. Below the ruler is a table for rivet code numbers, with row headings POP TAP, POP TLP, and IMEX.
Description
This blue and black lenticular card has a ruler along the top edge. When viewed at one angle, a centimeter ruler is divided to millimeters and numbered by ones from 1 to 15. Below the ruler is a table for rivet code numbers, with row headings POP TAP, POP TLP, and IMEX. From another angle, a six-inch ruler is divided to 1/32" and numbered by ones from 1 to 6. Below the ruler is a table for riveting thickness, with row headings POP ALUM, POP MONEL, and IMEX.
British engineer Hamilton Neil Wylie invented blind or pop rivets between 1916 and 1927. They may be installed in situations where the body (such as an aircraft) or building being assembled may be accessed from only one side. Introduced in 1955, Imex rivets are sealed on one side. While both terms are now in common use, Pop and Imex were originally brand names used by the George Tucker Eyelet Company of Birmingham, England. The rivet metals in the table include aluminum and Monel, a nickel alloy trademarked by Special Metals Corporation of New Hartford, N.Y.
The donor found this object in a used book he bought at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., in 1976. The back has several pen and pencil marks, including: 4.11.74; James Ramkinson; S; India Education Trust (/) Dod[illegible]nt Avenue; M. Rodrigues.
Reference: "The History of Stanley Engineered Fastening in Europe," http://www.emhart.eu/eu-en/about-emhart/history.php.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1974
maker
IMEX
ID Number
1987.0899.01
accession number
1987.0899
catalog number
1987.0899.01
Alarm Clock by Rube Goldberg, circa 1970.
Description
Alarm Clock by Rube Goldberg, circa 1970. This non-working, sculpted model signed by Rube Goldberg was crafted [during the 1960s] to replicate a cartoon from the series The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts that he drew for between 1914 and 1964.
Inscription: At 6 a.m. garbage man picks up ashcan, causing mule to kick over statue of Indian warrior. Arrow punctures bucket and ice cubes fall on false teeth, causing them to chatter and nip elephant's tail. Elephant raises his trunk in pain, pressing lever which starts toy maestro to lead quartet in sad song. Sentimental girl breaks down and cries into flower pot, causing flower to grow and tickle man's feet. He rocks with laughter, starting machine that rings gong and slides sleeper out of bed into slippers on wheels, which propel him into bathroom where cold shower really wakes him up.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
circa 1970
depicted
Butts, Lucifer Gorgonzola
original artist
Goldberg, Rube
ID Number
GA.23502
accession number
1972.289709
catalog number
GA*23502
accession number
289709
All the hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space below decks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.
Description
All the hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space below decks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.
date made
mid-1800s
when the Indiana was found
1972
ID Number
1979.1030.59
accession number
1979.1030
catalog number
1979.1030.59
The three-masted wooden propeller Edward Smith was built in 1890 by F.W. Wheeler & Co. at West Bay City, Michigan. The 201-foot bulk freighter is best known for rescuing crew from the old wooden steamer Annie Young on 20 October 1890 in Lake Huron.
Description
The three-masted wooden propeller Edward Smith was built in 1890 by F.W. Wheeler & Co. at West Bay City, Michigan. The 201-foot bulk freighter is best known for rescuing crew from the old wooden steamer Annie Young on 20 October 1890 in Lake Huron. The Young was transporting a cargo of coal from Buffalo to Gladstone, MI when a fire began somewhere in the vicinity of the boiler.
Upbound from Marine City, Smith’s Captain Mitchell saw the Young on fire, dropped the two barges he was towing and began circling the burning ship, rescuing 13 crew and the captain. Nine men were lost when their lifeboat swamped and sank. Capt. Mitchell was awarded a lifesaving medal for his efforts; Annie Young had been insured for $55,000.
In 1900, the Smith was renamed Zillah, when transferred at Port Huron, MI to new owners. On 29 August 1926, Zillah was transporting a cargo of heavy limestone when it sailed into a summer storm in Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior. The old steamer began to take on water, and the crew removed their belongings while Zillah coasted in a circle. The crew was rescued without loss by the steamer William B. Schiller, with assistance from the Coast Guard. Shortly afterwards, the ship rolled over and sank. The Zillah’s wreck was located in 1975.
Date made
1966
ship transferred to Michigan
1900
ship sank
1926-08-29
ship wreckage located
1975
built ship, Edward Smith
F. W. Wheeler & Co.
ID Number
TR.326655
catalog number
326655
accession number
265603
Abraham Lincoln had considerable maritime background, although it is usually eclipsed by his political heritage.
Description
Abraham Lincoln had considerable maritime background, although it is usually eclipsed by his political heritage. At the age of 19 in Anderson Creek, Ind., he built a flatboat for $24, loaded it with a local farmer’s produce, and floated it 1,000 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, where he sold both the boat and its cargo. When he was 22, he was hired by an Illinois store owner to take some goods down the Mississippi and sell them in New Orleans. Lincoln built another flatboat and successfully piloted it from New Salem, Ill. to New Orleans over a three-month period.
In the mid-1840s, as a lawyer in Springfield, Ill., his law partner William Herndon recalled watching Lincoln working on a large boat model with a local craftsman. A Springfield resident recalled Lincoln demonstrating the idea for his model in public. His model embodies an idea Lincoln had for raising vessels over shoal waters by increasing their buoyancy. That idea became patent #6,469 in May 1849—the only patent ever obtained by an American president. After he became president in 1860 and moved to Washington, he visited his model in the nearby Patent Office at least once. He also enjoyed reviewing naval vessels and ideas, and he personally approved inventor John Ericsson’s idea for the ironclad warship Monitor.
Lincoln’s original patent model was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1908 and has left the Mall only once since then, for an exhibit at the US Patent Office. This replica was built by the Smithsonian in 1978 for long-term display to preserve the fragile original.
date made
1978
ID Number
TR.336769
accession number
1978.2284
catalog number
336769
On 6 June 1858, the propeller Indiana sank in Lake Superior transporting its owner, three passengers and 280 tons of iron ore from Marquette, MI to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. The ship was insured for $9,000; the ore was insured separately for an undisclosed amount.
Description
On 6 June 1858, the propeller Indiana sank in Lake Superior transporting its owner, three passengers and 280 tons of iron ore from Marquette, MI to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. The ship was insured for $9,000; the ore was insured separately for an undisclosed amount. One contemporary newspaper stated that it was the “first cargo of Lake Superior iron ore ever lost on the lakes.”
The ship landed upright and slightly bow down on the lakebed in 120 feet of water; the bow split open and ore spilled out onto the sandy bottom. The deck of the shipwreck remains covered with iron ore today, and the cargo hold is filled about three feet deep with ore as well.
Samples of the ore were recovered in 1979; upon analysis, they revealed that a high percentage of pure iron.
Location
Currently not on view
date propeller Indiana sank
1858-06-06
samples of the ore were collected
1979
ID Number
1979.1030.12.01
catalog number
1979.1030.12
accession number
1979.1030
Before cows could be branded, they needed to be rounded up. Buckaroos, during line drive season in the fall, rode out over the countryside in ones or pairs to round up and bring the cattle back to the line camp, a procedure which required several days of hard riding.
Description
Before cows could be branded, they needed to be rounded up. Buckaroos, during line drive season in the fall, rode out over the countryside in ones or pairs to round up and bring the cattle back to the line camp, a procedure which required several days of hard riding. At this time, buckaroos slept in temporary housing--either canvas-walled tents or well-constructed cabins of frame and sheet metal. Each shelter or line cabin was supplied with food and the cowhand’s gear. It was not close to grocery stores for restocking. So this coffee can mousetrap, made in 1979 by rancher Leslie Stewart, of Paradise Valley, Nevada, was a necessary part of housekeeping, protecting the ingredients that would go into several evenings of meals before early to bed and early to rise the next day to complete the job. Dinner often consisted of steak, beans, biscuits, and coffee, with second helpings, provided the mice didn’t get there first. Contrary to what was often shown in movies and on television in the early to mid 20th century, buckaroos didn’t sit around a campfire after meal to sing cowboy songs. They were so tired that they went to bed early to get up early to do the same tasks the next day until the job was done and winter set in, leaving plenty of time to face undesirable chores on the ranch back home.
Les Stewart was descended from German pioneers. When not a rancher, he filled in off hours as a leather worker and furniture maker. He made this coffee can mousetrap in 1979 as a prop for a bunkhouse displayed in an exhibition on the community at what is now the National Museum of American History. At the time, he planned to retire from the buckaroo life but appreciated the chance to share a small part of his culture with the Smithsonian and the American Folk Life Center of the Library of Congress.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1979
maker
Stewart, Leslie J.
ID Number
1980.0292.04
accession number
1980.0292
catalog number
1980.0292.04
These hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space belowdecks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery.
Description
These hand tools were found in the engine and boiler space belowdecks in Indiana’s hold, indicating that they were used for the machinery. The crew used the shovel to add coal to the fires.
The hand truck—virtually identical to modern examples—is one of four found aboard Indiana and used for moving cargo into, out of, and around the cargo hold of the ship. This hand truck was the artifact that actually identified the vessel when it was located in 1972, for the words “PROPR INDIANA” were stamped into its handle. The other three had different ships’ names stamped on them, indicating that they were secondhand or borrowed equipment.
Date made
ca 1858
when the Indiana was found
1972
ID Number
1994.0033.01
catalog number
1994.0033.01
accession number
1994.0033

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