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 17 items.
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Engraved wood block "Madeira Boat"
- Description
- Joseph H. Brightly (about 1818–about 1858) of Philadelphia and New York City engraved this printing block after a drawing of a Portugese Madeira Boat by Expedition Artist Joseph Drayton. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 26 of Volume I of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- graphic artist
- Brightly, Joseph H.
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- original artist
- Drayton, Joseph
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.005
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.005
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved wood block "Kasanji"
- Description
- Joseph H. Brightly (about 1818–about 1858) of Philadelphia and New York City engraved this printing block after the drawing Kasanji, a native of Kasanji, by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 63 of Volume I of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- original artist
- Agate, A. T.
- graphic artist
- Brightly, Joseph H.
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.038
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.038
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved wood block "Patagonians"
- Description
- Joseph H. Brightly (about 1818–about 1858) of Philadelphia and New York City engraved this printing block after a drawing of Patagonians by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 118 of Volume I of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- original artist
- Agate, A. T.
- graphic artist
- Manning, John H.
- Brightly, Joseph H.
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.055
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.055
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved wood block "Natives of Wytoohee"
- Description
- Robert O'Brien engraved this printing block after a drawing, Natives of Wytoohee, by Expedition Artist Joseph Drayton. Wytoohee is part of the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 334 of Volume I of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- graphic artist
- O'Brien
- original artist
- Drayton, Joseph
- graphic artist
- Manning, John H.
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.081
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.081
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved wood block "Ohwa Tree"
- Description
- Joline J. Butler (about 1815–1846, working in New York City between 1841 and 1845) engraved this printing block after a drawing, Ohwa Tree, from the Samoan Group islands, by Expedition Naturalist Titian Ramsey Peale. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 126 of Volume II of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- graphic artist
- Butler, Joline J.
- original artist
- Peale, Titian Ramsay
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.104
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.104
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved wood block "Native of Australia"
- Description
- Richard H. Pease (1813–1869) engraved this printing block after a drawing, Native of Australia, by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 196 of Volume II of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- graphic artist
- Pease, Richard H.
- original artist
- Agate, A. T.
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.113
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.113
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved wood block "Cannibal Cooking-Pots"
- Description
- Joline J. Butler (about 1815–1846, working in New York City between 1841 and 1845) engraved this printing block after the drawing Cannibal Cooking-Pots from the Feejee (Fiji) group cultures by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 111 of Volume III of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- graphic artist
- Butler, Joline J.
- original artist
- Agate, A. T.
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.149
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.149
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved wood block "Drummond's Islander"
- Description
- Reuben S. Gilbert (about 1815–about 1850) engraved this printing block after a drawing, Drummond's Islander, from the Kingsmill Island group by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 45 of Volume V of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- graphic artist
- Gilbert, Reuben S.
- original artist
- Agate, A. T.
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.193
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.193
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved wood block "Indians Pounding Acorns"
- Description
- Joline J. Butler (about 1815–1846, working in New York City 1841-45) engraved this printing block after a drawing, Indians Pounding Acorns at New Helvetia (near present-day Sacramento, California), by Expedition Artist Alfred T. Agate. The wood engraving illustration was published on page 205 of Volume V of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Narrative by Charles Wilkes, 1844.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1845
- ca 1844
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- graphic artist
- Butler, Joline J.
- original artist
- Agate, A. T.
- graphic artist
- Armstrong, G.
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Wilkes, Charles
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.207
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.207
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved printing plate "Ptilouopus Perousei"
- Description
- Robert Hinshelwood (1812–after 1875) of New York City engraved this copper printing plate after a drawing by Expedition Naturalist Titian Ramsey Peale. The image depicts the Ptilonopus Perousei (now Many-colored Fruit Dove, Ptilinopus perousii Peale [S. polynesia]). The engraved illustration was published as Plate 33 in Volume VIII, Mammalogy and Ornithology, by John Cassin, 1858.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1858
- publisher
- Wilkes, Charles
- original artist
- Peale, Titian Ramsay
- graphic artist
- Hinshelwood, Robert
- printer
- Sherman, Conger
- author
- Cassin, John
- ID Number
- 1999.0145.413
- catalog number
- 1999.0145.413
- accession number
- 1999.0145
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center