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 73 items.
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Environmental Button
- Description
- The Healthy Harvest Society is a clearinghouse for information about organizations, groups, and individuals in the fields of sustainable agriculture and horticulture. It publishes a yearly directory and a geographical index of resources. The Society produced this button for the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, held in 1990.
- Date made
- 1990
- maker
- Adspecs Inc.
- ID Number
- 1992.3134.043
- catalog number
- 1992.3134.043
- nonaccession number
- 1992.3134
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- This button depicts the ecology symbol, a small letter “e” inside the larger letter “O,” the letters standing for “environment” and “organism.” Cartoonist Ron Cobb invented the symbol in 1969. The ecology symbol appeared in a green U.S. flag for the first time in the April 21, 1970 issue of Look magazine.
- maker
- Racomex Products
- ID Number
- 1993.3186.01
- catalog number
- 1993.3186.01
- nonaccession number
- 1993.3186
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. The occasion was first conceived by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, as a national day of observance for environmental problems. Millions of people participated in events across the country, while thousands of schools held special educational sessions, all dealing with environmental concerns. Earth Day has since become an annual event, celebrated worldwide.
- Date made
- 1970
- maker
- Edward Horn Co.
- ID Number
- 1993.3186.04
- catalog number
- 1993.3186.04
- nonaccession number
- 1993.3186
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- David Powell, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, designed this button for the Philadelphia Earth Week Committee on the occasion of the first Earth Day in 1970. The button was made by Horn Badge Co. of Glenside, Pennsylvania.
- Date made
- 1970
- maker
- Edward Horn Co.
- ID Number
- 1993.3186.05
- catalog number
- 1993.3186.05
- nonaccession number
- 1993.3186
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- The peace sign was created in 1958 as part of the British nuclear disarmament movement. The image combines the letters “N” (nuclear) and “D” (disarmament) from the semaphore (flag signaling) alphabet. During the 1960s and 1970s the sign became a ubiquitous symbol in the United States for a multitude of causes, including the peace and civil rights movements. On this button, the symbol has been made into a tree, evoking concern and care for the environment.
- Date made
- 1970
- maker
- Edward Horn Co.
- ID Number
- 1993.3186.07
- nonaccession number
- 1993.3186
- catalog number
- 1993.3186.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. The occasion was first conceived by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, as a national day of observance for environmental problems. Millions of people participated in events across the country, while thousands of schools held special educational sessions, all dealing with environmental concerns. Earth Day has since become an annual event, celebrated worldwide.
- Date made
- 1970
- maker
- Edward Horn Co.
- ID Number
- 1993.3186.08
- nonaccession number
- 1993.3186
- catalog number
- 1993.3186.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. The occasion was first conceived by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, as a national day of observance for environmental problems. Millions of people participated in events across the country, while thousands of schools held special educational sessions, all dealing with environmental concerns. Earth Day has since become an annual event, celebrated worldwide.
- ID Number
- 1993.3186.12
- nonaccession number
- 1993.3186
- catalog number
- 1993.3186.12
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- The slogan on this button refers to a campaign by the environmental group the Sierra Club to promote and preserve the wilderness areas of Utah. It dates from the early 1990s. Wilderness protection was a touchstone issue among some environmental groups, and is still relevant despite the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964.
- Date made
- early 1990s
- ID Number
- 1999.0248.26
- catalog number
- 1999.0248.26
- accession number
- 1999.0248
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- The Sierra Club, an American environmental organization headquartered in San Francisco, developed a reputation in the 1960s as an aggressive defender of wild lands. Its activist approach has continued, and its areas of concern have expanded. The organization was founded in 1892 by John Muir, a Scottish American naturalist and essayist.
- Date made
- early 1990s
- ID Number
- 1999.0248.68
- catalog number
- 1999.0248.68
- accession number
- 1999.0248
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Environmental Button
- Description
- This button was produced for a campaign against the Walt Disney Company, which planned to build a “history theme park” in rural Virginia in the 1990s. The park was opposed because of concerns about its environmental impact on the area.
- ID Number
- 1999.0248.79
- catalog number
- 1999.0248.79
- accession number
- 1999.0248
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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