Engineering, Building, and Architecture - Overview
Not many museums collect houses. The National Museum of American History has four, as well as two outbuildings, 11 rooms, an elevator, many building components, and some architectural elements from the White House. Drafting manuals are supplemented by many prints of buildings and other architectural subjects. The breadth of the museum's collections adds some surprising objects to these holdings, such as fans, purses, handkerchiefs, T-shirts, and other objects bearing images of buildings.
The engineering artifacts document the history of civil and mechanical engineering in the United States. So far, the Museum has declined to collect dams, skyscrapers, and bridges, but these and other important engineering achievements are preserved through blueprints, drawings, models, photographs, sketches, paintings, technical reports, and field notes.
"Engineering, Building, and Architecture - Overview" showing 337 items.
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La Libreria a Venise
- Description
- Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697–1768), known as Canaletto, etched this view of Venice featuring the Library of St. Mark and the Piazzetta in the 1740s. The Library was designed by Jacopo Sansovino (1486–1570), who is credited with bringing the High Renaissance style to Venice. Many travelers were interested in Renaissance and Baroque architecture, as well as the ruins of ancient Rome. Canaletto's views appealed especially to wealthy 18th-century British visitors who came to Venice on the Grand Tour. Americans also visited Italy and collected prints to remind them of places seen.
- Canaletto specialized in paintings of Venice, many of which show well-known landmarks. He also made a series of etchings. Some depict actual sites, as this one does, while others show invented landscapes. The Museum's set of Canaletto's Venetian etchings was received as a gift from Mabel Brady Garvan, who, with her husband Francis P. Garvan, built an important collection of American paintings, furniture, and decorative arts that is now at the Yale University Art Gallery.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- graphic artist
- Canaletto
- ID Number
- GA*21847
- catalog number
- 21847
- accession number
- 257503
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
E. Howard and Company Tower Clock
- Description
- In places that required many clocks—factories, office and public buildings, or schools—time was often distributed by a system of "master" and "slave" clocks. In such a system, a central timekeeper, the master clock, sent periodic impulses, usually electric or pneumatic, to any number of secondary or slave clocks. These slave clocks could be located anywhere, without regard for convenience of winding, because they needed none. The master clock could also drive other time signals like classroom bells, factory whistles, or time stamps. More economical to install and more convenient to maintain than an equal number of independent clocks, the system also ensured that all dials within the system agreed.
- The museum collection contains such a timekeeping system. The system's master clock (Cat. 310,569), built by E. Howard and Company of Boston, is a mechanical tower clock movement equipped with electrical contacts. Once a minute the escapement, through a pair of rotary switches, closes an electrical circuit and sends an impulse to the slave dial (Cat. 310,570), where electromagnets advance the hands. Batteries at the base of the master clock supply current.
- This clock and dial were components of a system that served the Smithsonian between about 1881 and 1932. First housed in the north tower of the Arts and Industries Building, the clock movement distributed impulses to eighteen dials in that building and the Castle, the Smithsonian's earliest building. Tunnels under the floors carried the wiring. The clock room also housed a telephone switchboard, a watchman's clock, a central burglar alarm, and call bells—all of which, like the time distribution system, relied on the newly harnessed power of electricity. "Indeed," boasted the Smithsonian's annual report for 1881, "it is believed that in no building in the world, with the exception of the Grand Opera House in Paris, is there so perfect and complete an application of electricity to practical services."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1880
- manufacturer
- E. Howard & Co.
- ID Number
- ME*310569
- catalog number
- 310569
- accession number
- 123081
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Slave Dial to Tower Clock
- Description
- In places that required many clocks—factories, office and public buildings, or schools—time was often distributed by a system of "master" and "slave" clocks. In such a system, a central timekeeper, the master clock, sent periodic impulses, usually electric or pneumatic, to any number of secondary or slave clocks. These slave clocks could be located anywhere, without regard for convenience of winding, because they needed none. The master clock could also drive other time signals like classroom bells, factory whistles, or time stamps. More economical to install and more convenient to maintain than an equal number of independent clocks, the system also ensured that all dials within the system agreed.
- The museum collection contains such a timekeeping system. The system's master clock (Cat. 310,569), built by E. Howard and Company of Boston, is a mechanical tower clock movement equipped with electrical contacts. Once a minute the escapement, through a pair of rotary switches, closes an electrical circuit and sends an impulse to the slave dial (Cat. 310,570), where electromagnets advance the hands. Batteries at the base of the master clock supply current.
- This clock and dial were components of a system that served the Smithsonian between about 1881 and 1932. First housed in the north tower of the Arts and Industries Building, the clock movement distributed impulses to eighteen dials in that building and the Castle, the Smithsonian's earliest building. Tunnels under the floors carried the wiring. The clock room also housed a telephone switchboard, a watchman's clock, a central burglar alarm, and call bells—all of which, like the time distribution system, relied on the newly harnessed power of electricity. "Indeed," boasted the Smithsonian's annual report for 1881, "it is believed that in no building in the world, with the exception of the Grand Opera House in Paris, is there so perfect and complete an application of electricity to practical services."
- Date made
- 1880
- ID Number
- ME*310570
- catalog number
- 310570
- accession number
- 123081
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
[View from top of bridge tower of bridge construction. Active no. 13624 stereo interpositive.]
- Notes
- Currently stored in box 1.2.9 [14]
- Same as RSN 427
- Date
- 1895
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- H.C. White Co
- Local number
- RSN 426
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[View from top of bridge tower of bridge construction.] 13624 interpositive
- Notes
- Currently stored in box 1.2.9 [14]
- Same as RSN 426
- Date
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- H.C. White Co
- Local number
- RSN 427
- Video number 06384
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Cladding Fragment from the World Trade Center
- Description
- This crumpled piece of exterior sheathing was recovered from the debris pile of the World Trade Center after the building collapsed following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. While the towers withstood the initial damage caused by the impact of the hijacked jet liners being crashed into the structures, the intense fire that then raged proved to be too much.
- The twin towers of the World Trade Center, a New York City landmark and the tallest buildings in the world when completed in 1973, were noted for their incredible 110-story height and their gleaming exterior. The towers were clad in an aluminum alloy sheathing that gave the buildings a golden sheen at sunrise and sunset. The material covered the closely-spaced exterior steel columns, enhancing their soaring appearance. Architect Minoru Yamasaki choose to use an aluminum alloy after first considering the more expensive alternative of stainless steel. The highly reflective sheathing of the twin towers added to the building's impact as a memorable landmark.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- late 1960s-early 1970s
- ID Number
- 2002.0205.05
- accession number
- 2002.0205
- catalog number
- 2002.0205.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hart House Architectual Elements from Ipswich, Mass.
- Description
- The largest artifact in the museum, this Georgian-style, 2 ½-story timber-framed house was built in the 1760s and stood at 16 Elm Street in the center of Ipswich, Massachusetts, until 1963 when efforts by Ipswich citizens saved it from the bulldozer. The house was carefully taken apart—the frame, chimney, and many other pieces were shipped to the Museum and reassembled.
- Today, the house is the centerpiece of the exhibition Within These Walls , and visitors are able to peer through its walls, windows, and doors to view settings played out against the backdrop of Colonial America, the American Revolution, the abolitionist movement, the industrial era, and World War II. The exhibition tells the story of five ordinary families, selected from many, who lived in this house over 200 years and made history in their kitchens and parlors, through everyday choices and personal acts of courage and sacrifice.
- Date made
- ca. 1760s
- ca 1760
- resident
- Caldwell, Josiah
- Caldwell, Lucy
- Choate, Abraham
- Choate, Sarah
- Dodge, Abraham
- Dodge, Bethiah
- Lynch, Catherine
- Lynch, Mary
- owner
- Dodge, Abraham
- Caldwell, Josiah
- Choate, Sarah
- Dodge, Bethiah
- Caldwell, Lucy
- Lynch, Catherine
- Lynch, Mary
- resident
- Scott, Mary
- owner
- Choate, Abraham
- ID Number
- DL*64.545
- catalog number
- 64.545
- accession number
- 252318
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Child's Tool Chest
- Description
- As illustrated in this child's tool chest from around 1900, children in the early 20th century encountered their society's gender expectations at a young age. The tool chest from R. Bliss & Co. declared carpentry to be boys' work. It came with a hinged lid and a sliding, removable top tray. Inside is a colored picture of boys building a house under a banner that reads "BLISS UNION TOOL CHESTS FOR BOYS." R. Bliss & Co., established in 1845, started as a tool company, making wooden screws and clamps for piano and cabinetmakers, before it became a leading manufacturer of toys by the turn of the 20th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1900-1924
- maker
- R. Bliss and Co.
- ID Number
- 1977.1101.0167
- accession number
- 1977.1101
- catalog number
- 1977.1101.0167
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Route 66 Pavement, 1932
- Description
- The nation's first network of highways, built in the late 1920s and 1930s, created new opportunities for motorists and small business owners. It also created a perception that highways benefited ordinary Americans, enhancing their personal lives and giving them more freedom. These advantages contrasted with railroads, which benefited corporations and allowed them to control people's movements and the cost of their travels. In 2000, Oklahoma truckers moved 50 feet of concrete pavement from U.S. 66 to the collections of the National Museum of American History to mark the significance of U.S. numbered highways, and Route 66 as a prime example.
- In 1926, almost 60 years after the first transcontinental railroad was completed, U. S. 66 was conceived as a public thoroughfare linking the Midwest, Southwest, and southern California. Its all-season route soon brought heavy traffic. Motorists and business owners adapted Route 66 for their needs and oriented their lives around it. Some earned a living by driving a truck or operating a roadside business, while others enjoyed leisure trips, advertised products, or moved to new homes. Clusters of roadside buildings made Route 66 the main street of a new community—one that was of, by, and for people on the move.
- Route 66 also served as a conduit for mass migrations of workers, farmers, and their families who saw the highway as a path to a better life. During the Depression, Midwesterners saw it as a way out of hard times and failed farms, and they followed it to seek jobs in the Southwest and California. G.I.s traveled to defense camps during World War II, and after the war they settled in new homes nearby. Hordes of vacationers followed the advice of songwriters Bobby and Cynthia Troup: "Get your kicks on Route 66." Americans relied on Route 66 to change their circumstances for the better, and the highway earned a special place in American culture. Today, historians commemorate its importance.
- Date made
- 1932
- ID Number
- 2000.3074.01
- catalog number
- 2000.3074.01
- nonaccession number
- 2000.3074
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Family Fallout Shelter
- Description
- The family fallout shelter represents the public policy assumptions of the atomic age, namely, that with enough preparation, the American family and with it the nation's social and political fabric would survive a nuclear attack. This free-standing, double-hulled steel shelter was installed beneath the front yard of Mr. and Mrs. Murland E. Anderson of Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The Andersons purchased their shelter from J. L. Haverstock, a Ft. Wayne realtor who began selling family fallout shelters as a sideline in early 1955 after reading a promotional Life magazine article.
- The Andersons maintained the shelter from its installation in 1955 through the 1960s, a period spanning the development of the hydrogen bomb and the Cuban missile crisis. Insufficiently anchored against Ft. Wayne's high water table when first installed, the shelter popped to the surface of the Anderson front yard in time for the Cuban missile crisis and was quickly reinterred in a frenzy of shelter building activity in 1961. The donors purchased the property, including the shelter, from the Andersons in 1968.
- Date made
- 1950
- date made
- 1950s-1960s
- maker
- Universal Tank & Iron Works, Inc.
- ID Number
- 2005.0051.04
- accession number
- 2005.0051
- catalog number
- 2005.0051.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
