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. |
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Selected Objects |
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Bakelizer
This is the steam pressure vessel used by Leo H. Baekeland, the chemist and inventor, to produce commercial quantities of the first totally synthetic plastic, Bakelite. It was produced by ...
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Carrier Centrifugal Refrigeration Compressor
The first successful mechanical refrigeration equipment was patented soon after the Civil War, but the large size and high cost of these early machines restricted their use to industrial processes. ...
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Eli Terry Mass-Produced Box Clock
In the opening years of the 19th century, a handful of Connecticut inventors and entrepreneurs transformed the way clocks were made in the United States. Recognizing a vast potential market ...
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Factory Gates
This pair of iron gates from the 1870s hung in the Dobson textile mill in Philadelphia, Penn., until 1991.
In the late 18th century most workers were farmers ...
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Ford Model T, 1926
The National Museum of American History has a strong collection of early automobiles. The collection documents the great diversity of the early industry. It includes electric-, steam-, and gasoline-powered vehicles ...
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Hyatt Celluloid Billiard Ball
This billiard ball, a gift of the Celanese Corporation, is made of cellulose nitrate, a substance eventually known as "celluloid." John Wesley Hyatt, a printer, was encouraged to develop the ...
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Krispy Automatic Ring-King Junior Doughnut Machine
The Krispy Automatic Ring-King Junior was introduced by the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation of Winston-Salem, N.C., in the 1950s. It was designed for making the company's signature product—hot glazed doughnuts—in ...
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Niagara Falls Original Turbines
Using this extremely fine wood model as part of its technical proposal, the Swiss firm Faesch & Piccard won the contract to design the original turbines for the Niagara Falls ...
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Samuel Slater's Spinning Frame
The Smithsonian's first label for Slater's Spinning Frame was written by textiles curator Frederick L. Lewton in 1912 for an exhibition in the United States National Museum in Washington, D.C.:
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Sewing Machine Patent Model
This is a patent model of a sewing machine invented by John Bachelder of Boston, Mass., who was issued Patent No. 6439 on May 8, 1849. In his patent specification ...
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Tall Case Clock
The earliest domestic clocks in the American colonies were English-made "lantern" clocks, with brass gear trains held between pillars. Along with fully furnished "best" beds, looking glasses, sofas, silver, and ...
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Related Items from the Archives Center |
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Aladdin Industries Inc. Records, 1889-2003
Best known as a manufacturer of thermos ware and lunch boxes, Aladdin Industries diversified its business into many related fields. This photograph shows an assembly line.
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Albany Billiard Ball Company Records, 1869-1973
The Albany Billiard Ball Company was among the first plastic manufacturers in the United States. Photographs in the collection illustrate the manufacturing process.
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Simmons Company Records, 1892-2000
The Simmons Company automated the process of creating and enclosing coiled wire springs for mattresses. Its “Beautyrest” line, introduced in 1925 with extensive advertising, was a major business success.
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