Natural Resources - Overview
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.
"Natural Resources - Overview" showing 15 items.
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Bryan Gravimeter
- 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
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Framed Photograph of Live Oak Tree
- Description (Brief)
- This photograph of an oak tree is one of forty-nine framed black and white photographic prints bequeathed to the Smithsonian by William F. Bucher of Washington, D.C. The collection represents a labor of love for Bucher, a cabinetmaker, who 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 Middleton Place, South Carolina. The image was Photo by courtesy of George W. Johnson and the Chamber of Commerce, Charleston, South Carolina. The frame is made of quarter-inch oak veneer on an ash back frame.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1930
- frame maker
- Bucher, William F.
- photographer
- Johnson, Geo. W.
- ID Number
- AG*115767.21
- catalog number
- 115767.21
- accession number
- 115767
- maker number
- 24
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Framed Photograph of an American Black Walnut Tree
- 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. Forest Service
- ID Number
- AG*115767.41
- catalog number
- 115767.41
- accession number
- 115767
- maker number
- 44
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Framed Photograph of a White Ash Tree
- 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
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Framed Photograph of an Andaman Padauk Tree
- Description (Brief)
- This photograph of an Andaman padauk 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.
- This photo was taken by the Forest Research Institute in Dehra Dun, India. The frame has a veneer made of Andaman padauk on a tulip poplar back, the glass bead is satin wood and the back bead is stained black Andaman padauk.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1908
- 1932
- frame maker
- Bucher, William F.
- photographer
- Forest Research Institute
- ID Number
- AG*124450.02
- catalog number
- AG*124450.02
- accession number
- 124450
- maker number
- 14
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Gasoline Pump
- 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
- distributor
- Amoco
- maker
- Wayne Oil Tank & Pump Company
- ID Number
- TR*326809
- accession number
- 265699
- catalog number
- 326809
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Hersey H.F. Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc meter made by the Hersey Manufacturing Company in Boston, Mass. Hersey introduced the form in 1919, and described it as a “positive displacement meter of the nutating type” that was “adapted for use on all services where extreme accuracy, reliability and durability are required and where general efficiency rather than first cost is of prime importance.” The serial number (1,669,637) on this example dates from 1936. The case has been partially cut away to show the mechanism.
- Ref: Hersey Disc Water Meter. Model H.F. Meter (July 1, 1926).
- date made
- 1936
- maker
- Hersey Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*319448
- accession number
- 238754
- catalog number
- 319448
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Badger A-SOT Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It has a frost-proof bottom, fits a ⅝” pipe, and has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute. The gear train operated in oil (SOT stood for sealed oil train). The serial number (2,342,998) dates from 1943. Due to wartime materials restrictions, the body is made of cast iron.
- date made
- ca 1943
- maker
- Badger Meter Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325802
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325802
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Badger SC-SOT Water Meter
- Description
- This disc water meter was made by the Badger Meter Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee, Wisc. It has a split case and so could be used in warmer climates where there was no danger of freezing. It fits a ⅝” pipe, has a capacity of 26 gallons per minute, and was designed for use with corrosive waters. Due to wartime materials restrictions, the case is made of cast iron. The serial number (2,358,003) dates from 1943. SC-SOT stands for split case, sealed oil gear train.
- date made
- ca 1943
- maker
- Badger Meter Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- PH*325805
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325805
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Arctic Ironside Water Meter
- Description
- This is a disc water meter with frost-proof bottom and serial number 3,609,508, made by the Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company in the early 1940s. Pittsburgh Equitable explained that “Months of preparation by Pittsburgh-National Research men, preceding the limitation order on the manufacture of bronze meters by the War Production Board, now makes possible the presentation of the Pittsburgh Ironside Meter.” This is “a top quality disc meter in the construction of which over 70% of the bronze normally used in meters of this size has been eliminated. Rust-proofed cast iron and molded glass have been ingeniously substituted for bronze in the outer shell, register box and register lid.” “To meet the conditions in sections of the country where damage from freezing is likely to occur, this meter is equipped with a cast iron bottom plate especially designed so that should the water in the meter freeze, the pressure exerted by the expanding ice with break one or more of the lugs from the cast iron plate, thus allowing the vital working parts . . . to move freely with the expanding ice.”
- Ref: Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company, Ironside Water Meter, Bulletin W-535 (1942).
- date made
- early 1940s
- maker
- Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company
- ID Number
- PH*325815
- accession number
- 245003
- catalog number
- 325815
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center