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 32 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
- Several types of renewable energy sources are available as alternatives to non-renewable carbon based energy sources. This button advocates the use of solar energy to generate electricity.
- Date made
- 1978
- maker
- Edward Horn Co.
- ID Number
- 2003.0014.0400
- accession number
- 2003.0014
- catalog number
- 2003.0014.0400
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Framed Photograph of Peirce Mill
- Description (Brief)
- This photograph of Peirce Mill 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 oak tree depicted in this photograph was located by Peirce Mill in Rock Creek Park, and the image was made by William Bucher. The frame is made from oak taken from the sluice box of the mill that had been in the water for more than 100 years.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1927
- frame maker
- Bucher, William F.
- photographer
- Bucher, William F.
- ID Number
- AG*115767.19
- catalog number
- AG*115767.19
- accession number
- 115767
- maker number
- 22
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Framed Photograph of American Linden
- Description (Brief)
- This photograph of an American linden 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., and the image was made by William Bucher. The frame is made of linden wood.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1929
- frame maker
- Bucher, William F.
- photographer
- Bucher, William F.
- ID Number
- AG*115767.35
- catalog number
- AG*115767.35
- accession number
- 115767
- maker number
- 38
- 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
Engraved woodblock of a "Bird's-eye view of the Grand Canyon"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Bird’s-eye view of the Grand Canyon" was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in 1875 as as Figure 72 (p.187) in Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0467
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0467
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of "Climbing the Grand Canyon"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Climbing the Grand Canyon” was prepared by F. S. King and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in 1875 on page 98 of John Wesley Powell's Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Thomas Moran (1837-1926) was the original artist.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- original artist
- Moran, Thomas
- graphic artist
- King, Francis Scott
- maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0474
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0474
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of the "View of Marble Canyon (from the Vermillion Cliffs)"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “View of Marble Canyon (from the Vermillion Cliffs)” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 63 (p.180) in Report of the Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries. Explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902). The image depicts the “Colorado River [and] the Eastern Kaibab Displacements, appearing as folds [and] faults.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1355
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1355
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Bird’s-eye view of cliffs of erosion"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of the “Bird’s-eye view of cliffs of erosion” was prepared and printed by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published in 1875 as Figure 74 (p.162) in The Exploration of the Colorado River of the West by John Wesley Powell (1834-1902). Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) engraved the illustration which “depicts the Shin-ar’-ump Cliffs, Vermillion Cliffs, and Gray Cliffs, in order from right to left.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1875
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- author
- Powell, John Wesley
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- block maker
- V. W. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1562
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1562
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center