Natural Resources

The natural resources collections offer centuries of evidence about how Americans have used the bounty of the American continent and coastal waters. Artifacts related to flood control, dam construction, and irrigation illustrate the nation's attempts to manage the natural world. Oil-drilling, iron-mining, and steel-making artifacts show the connection between natural resources and industrial strength.

Forestry is represented by saws, axes, a smokejumper's suit, and many other objects. Hooks, nets, and other gear from New England fisheries of the late 1800s are among the fishing artifacts, as well as more recent acquisitions from the Pacific Northwest and Chesapeake Bay. Whaling artifacts include harpoons, lances, scrimshaw etchings in whalebone, and several paintings of a whaler's work at sea. The modern environmental movement has contributed buttons and other protest artifacts on issues from scenic rivers to biodiversity.

In the 1920s, as American companies began using scientific tools for petroleum prospecting, the Marland Oil Co. established a geophysical research laboratory; hired a PhD physicist named Englehardt August Eckhardt and an electrical engineer named Ralph D.
Description
In the 1920s, as American companies began using scientific tools for petroleum prospecting, the Marland Oil Co. established a geophysical research laboratory; hired a PhD physicist named Englehardt August Eckhardt and an electrical engineer named Ralph D. Wyckoff; and purchased two sets of Mendenhall pendulum apparatus. Since this apparatus "afforded a precision of measurement which was just barely sufficient" for prospecting purposes, Eckhardt and Wyckoff developed a more precise instrument. The key element of their design was a minimum period pendulum made of fused quartz, a material that was physically stable and that minimized temperature corrections. General Electric supplied the quartz, the largest pieces of this material it had yet made.
The Gulf Research & Development Corp. hired Eckhardt and Wyckoff in 1928, and asked them to design new pendulum equipment based on their past experience. By 1935, Gulf had 10 pendulum instruments in the field. The pendulums were ground and polished by J. W. Fecker from pieces of fused quartz produced by General Electric. The bearings for the knife-edges were made of Pyrex. The optical work for the instrument was done by Bausch & Lomb.
For geological purposes, the Gulf pendulum instruments were replaced by gravimeters in 1936. For geodetic purposes, however, they remained useful and important for much longer. Indeed, some examples were used during the International Geophysical Year, 1957-1958. The Gulf Research & Development Corp. donated this example to the Smithsonian in 1962.
Ref: Malcolm W. Gay, "Relative Gravity Measurements Using Precision Pendulum Equipment," Geophysics 5 (1940): 176-191.
"Pendulum and Gravimeter Measurements of the Earth's Gravity," Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 39 (1958): 1205-1211.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1930s
maker
Gulf Research & Development Corp.
ID Number
PH.319961
catalog number
319961
accession number
241314
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1938
ID Number
AG.A.7550
accession number
198812
catalog number
A.7550
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1938-10-27
ID Number
AG.A.7592
catalog number
A.7592
accession number
198812
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1939
ID Number
AG.A.7551
accession number
198812
catalog number
A.7551
Made in Fort Wayne Indiana, this gasoline pump sold "Red Crown" gasoline, a brand produced by Standard Oil of Indiana.
Description
Made in Fort Wayne Indiana, this gasoline pump sold "Red Crown" gasoline, a brand produced by Standard Oil of Indiana. Consumers could see how much gas was pumped as the arrow moved around the face dial.
As Americans began to drive gasoline-fueled cars in large numbers, oil companies and gasoline stations created technologies and systems to fulfill the demands of consumers. By the 1930s, pumps were the recognizable ancestors of the ones we use today.
Date made
1930
date made
1932
distributor
Amoco
maker
Wayne Oil Tank & Pump Company
ID Number
TR.326809
accession number
265699
catalog number
326809
This cotton miner’s cap has a leather brim with a leather lamp bracket holding a carbide lamp. A small union pin that reads “United Mine Works of America 2 1934, Working Button” is attached to the side of the cap.
Description (Brief)
This cotton miner’s cap has a leather brim with a leather lamp bracket holding a carbide lamp. A small union pin that reads “United Mine Works of America 2 1934, Working Button” is attached to the side of the cap. Before head protection became mandatory in industrial workplaces, miner’s caps served as a way to mount their lamps.
The union pin on this mining cap speaks to the personal connections miner’s had with their cap. A miner chose their headgear, and took it with them to work where it was worn all day and used for decades. It wasn’t uncommon for miner’s to personalize their helmet with stickers or their caps with pins.
date made
1930
ID Number
AG.MHI-MN-9526B
catalog number
MHI-MN-9526B
accession number
277982
Gravimeters (gravity meters) are extremely precise instruments that measure the earth’s gravity at a specific location.
Description
Gravimeters (gravity meters) are extremely precise instruments that measure the earth’s gravity at a specific location. Gravimeters are often used by prospectors to locate subterranean deposits of valuable natural resources (mainly petroleum) as well as by geodesists to study the shape of the earth and its gravitational field. Differences in topography, latitude, or elevation—as well as differences in subterranean density—all affect the force of gravity. Commonly, gravimeters are composed of a weight hanging on a zero-length spring inside a metal housing to negate the influence of temperature and wind. Gravity is then measured by how much the weight stretches the spring.
Because gravitational anomalies are often associated with petroleum deposits, geologists measure the force of gravity in areas where they suspect oil might be found. The gravimeters that came into use for this purpose in the 1930s were more rugged and easier to manage than the gravity pendulums and torsion balances that had used since the early years of the 20th century. This gravimeter, which reads to one part in ten million, was the first gravimeter that was sufficiently accurate and dependable for oil exploration. It was designed by Orley Hosmer Truman, built by the Humble Oil and Refining Co., and put into use in 1931. Humble donated it to the Smithsonian in 1960.
Ref: Notes prepared by D. H. Gardner, August 19, 1959, in NMAH accession file.
O. H. Truman, "Notes on the Truman Gravity Meter No. 1" (Feb. 26, 1962), and letter to P. W. Bishop, Jan. 10, 1963, in NMAH curatorial file.
L. L. Nettleton, Geophysical Prospecting for Oil (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1940),p. 32.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1931
maker
Humble Oil and Refining Co.
ID Number
AG.MHI-P-7682
catalog number
MHI-P-7682
accession number
230370
Along with gravimeters and torsion balances, pendulums can be used to measure gravitational force. The period oscillation of the pendulum can be used to measure gravitational acceleration, and in turn used in prospecting for natural resources.
Description
Along with gravimeters and torsion balances, pendulums can be used to measure gravitational force. The period oscillation of the pendulum can be used to measure gravitational acceleration, and in turn used in prospecting for natural resources. Different types of underground resources have different densities, increasing or decreasing gravitational attraction that can be detected by pendulums.
This is one of two similar instruments that the Humble Oil & Refining Co. purchased in 1931, and used to determine the force of gravity near Houston, Texas. It is a photographic recording instrument with four invariable pendulums of the sort that the Austrian military officer, Robert von Sterneck, designed in the 1880s. Carl Bamberg offered instruments of this sort, with "price by arrangement" for some 20 years, and Askania Werke continued the tradition.
Ref: Notes prepared by D.H. Gardner, August 19, 1959, in NMAH accession file.
Carl Bamberg, Preis-Verzeichnis. No. XI. Wissenschaftliche Instrumente (1904), pp. 50-52.
M. Haid, "Neues Pendelstativ," Zeitschrift für Instrumentenkunde 16 (1896): 193-196.
date made
ca 1931
maker
Askania
ID Number
AG.MHI-P-7681
catalog number
MHI-P-7681
accession number
230370
Gravimeters (gravity meters) are extremely precise instruments that measure the earth’s gravity at a specific location.
Description
Gravimeters (gravity meters) are extremely precise instruments that measure the earth’s gravity at a specific location. Gravimeters are often used by prospectors to locate subterranean deposits of valuable natural resources (mainly petroleum) as well as by geodesists to study the shape of the earth and its gravitational field. Differences in topography, latitude, or elevation—as well as differences in subterranean density—all affect the force of gravity. Commonly, gravimeters are composed of a weight hanging on a zero-length spring inside a metal housing to negate the influence of temperature and wind. Gravity is then measured by how much the weight stretches the spring.
This gravimeter was built in 1938 under the direction of Andrew Bonnell Bryan (1897 1989), a Ph.D. physicist who served as Director of the Geophysics Division of the Carter Oil Co., in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bryan described an earlier model at the 1937 meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, noting that it "was originally designed in the laboratories of the Humble Oil & Refining Company and is now being built and used by both Humble and Carter in slightly different forms." The gravimeter weighed 112 pounds, and could be "readily handled by two men." The Carter Oil Co. donated this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1959.
Ref: F. G. Boucher to P. W. Bishop, August 6, 1959, in NMAH accession file.
A. B. Bryan, "Gravimeter Design and Operation," Geophysics 2 (1937): 301-308.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1938
maker
Carter Oil Company
ID Number
AG.MHI-P-7658
catalog number
MHI-P-7658
accession number
230569
This photograph of a white ash tree is one of forty-nine framed black and white photographic prints bequeathed to the Smithsonian by William F. Bucher of Washington, D.C.
Description (Brief)
This photograph of a white ash tree is one of forty-nine framed black and white photographic prints bequeathed to the Smithsonian by William F. Bucher of Washington, D.C. Bucher, a cabinetmaker, framed each photograph in wood of the same species as the tree depicted in the print. The photos were displayed in a special exhibition, Our Trees and their Woods at the United States National Museum in 1931.
The tree depicted in this photograph was located on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., with the Capitol visible in the background. The image was made by William Bucher. The frame is made of white ash veneer on chestnut, with an ebony back band and an Andaman padauk glass bead.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1931
frame maker
Bucher, William F.
photographer
Bucher, William F.
ID Number
AG.115767.43
catalog number
115767.43
accession number
115767
maker number
48
This photograph of a black walnut tree is one of forty-nine framed black and white photographic prints bequeathed to the Smithsonian by William F. Bucher of Washington, D.C.
Description (Brief)
This photograph of a black walnut tree is one of forty-nine framed black and white photographic prints bequeathed to the Smithsonian by William F. Bucher of Washington, D.C. Bucher, a cabinetmaker, framed each photograph in wood of the same species as the tree depicted in the print. The photos were displayed in a special exhibition, Our Trees and their Woods at the United States National Museum in 1931.
The tree depicted in this photograph was located in Georgia and the image was made by U.S. Forestry Service. The frame is made of quarter-inch walnut veneer on white pine.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1931
frame maker
Bucher, William F.
photographer
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Forest Service
ID Number
AG.115767.41
catalog number
115767.41
accession number
115767
maker number
44

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