Work - Overview
The tools, rules, and relationships of the workplace illustrate some of the enduring collaborations and conflicts in the everyday life of the nation. The Museum has more than 5,000 traditional American tools, chests, and simple machines for working wood, stone, metal, and leather. Materials on welding, riveting, and iron and steel construction tell a more industrial version of the story. Computers, industrial robots, and other artifacts represent work in the Information Age.
But work is more than just tools. The collections include a factory gate, the motion-study photographs of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, and more than 3,000 work incentive posters. The rise of the factory system is measured, in part, by time clocks in the collections. More than 9,000 items bring in the story of labor unions, strikes, and demonstrations over trade and economic issues.
"Work - Overview" showing 3404 items.
Page 1 of 341
Bun Gauge
- Description
- One hallmark of the American fast food industry has been customer convenience in knowing precisely what one's food will look and taste like. The lack of variation has extended to the food preparation routines of the fast food workforce. Specialized kitchen aids such as this bun gauge have been devised to eliminate guesswork and meal–to–meal variation.
- There was a time in American history when neither customers nor restaurants cared whether the height of a hamburger bun emerging from the oven was a bit higher or lower than the next bun. But as this gauge demonstrates, new parameters emerged in the late 20th century to reduce this likelihood. As with car parts and clock gears, production quality decisions are removed from the individual worker. No longer does a baker need to use seasoned judgment to determining the proper look of a burger bun. Now he or she simply places one side of this go–no–go gauge over a sample bun to test for the proper height and diameter of a Quarter Pounder, a Big Mac, a regular burger, or a slice of bun.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1990
- ID Number
- 1991.0324.05
- catalog number
- 1991.0324.05
- accession number
- 1991.0324
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Figure of a Chesapeake Waterman
- Description
- How many of us love what we do for a living so much that we spend our retirement creating objects that reflect and celebrate their our? For some retired Chesapeake Bay watermen, life ashore is more challenging than setting out in a boat every day before dawn, in all kinds of weather, to harvest what's in season. After a lifetime of hard, physical labor as independent men who "follow the water," the sameness and idleness of shore life can be a strain. They miss their boats, the water, and the actual work--the performance of occupational skills--that shaped and defined their lives. Such was the context within which Waverly Evans, a waterman from Smith Island, in the lower Chesapeake, began producing wooden figures in this way.
- The figure in the Smithsonian collection depicts a waterman standing on the bow of a skiff with a crab net held aloft. It shows a netter who has scooped up a "doubler," the local name for a pair of mating crabs. With a flick of the wrist, the netter flips the pair into the air to separate them, a necessary maneuver for marketing the catch. These deft motions are second nature to watermen and are what Waverly Evans celebrates in his wooden works of occupationally inspired folk art.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1996
- maker
- Evans, Waverly
- Evans, Waverly
- ID Number
- 1996.0219.02
- catalog number
- 1996.0219.02
- accession number
- 1996.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Franklin printing press
- Description
- Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), American scientist, diplomat, and one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, identified himself as a printer. He wrote his own epitaph long before he died: "The Body of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Printer. Like the Covering of an old Book, Its contents torn out and stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be lost, It will (as he believ'd) appear once more In a new and more beautiful Edition Corrected and amended By the Author."
- Franklin apprenticed in the Boston printing shop of his brother James from the age of twelve, but ran away at seventeen to Philadelphia. In 1724 he was sent to London where he worked as a printer in the firm of John Watts (where this press is said to have been used) before returning to Philadelphia in 1726. By 1730 he had set up his own printing business and published a newspaper, which gave him a forum for political expression. His political activities led to his involvement in the movement to free the Colonies from British rule. He spent the years 1757–1762 and 1764–1775 in England, returning to Philadelphia to participate in the First Continental Congress. From 1776–1785 he served in France, securing vital French assistance for the American revolutionary effort.
- The Franklin press in the Museum's collection is an English common press made early in the eighteenth century. It was on exhibition in the U.S. National Museum beginning in the 1880s, and it was shown in the Hall of Printing and Graphic Arts in this museum from 1964 to 2003. It is missing some of its parts, such as its gallows, tympan, and frisket, so it cannot be operated. A full-sized working replica of the press was made in 1984 for the Museum's exhibition, Life in America–After the Revolution.
- The story of how this press came to be associated with Franklin is rather complicated. While in England in 1768, Franklin is said to have visited the Watts firm and saluted the press in the shop where he had worked some 25 years before. A plaque added to the press in 1833 reads:
- "Dr. Franklin's Remarks relative to this Press, made when he came to England as agent of Massachusetts, in the year 1768. The Doctor at this time visited the printing office of Mr. Watts, of Wild Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and going up to this particular press (afterwards in the possession of Messrs. Cox & Son, of Great Queen Street, of whom it was purchased) thus addressed the men who were working at it. 'Come my friends, we will drink together. It is now forty years since I worked like you, at this press, as a journeyman printer.' The Doctor then sent out for a gallon of porter, and he drank with them- "Success to Printing"
- Franklin's visit was recalled by elderly printers who testified to the identity of the press three-quarters of a century later. In 1841 the press was presented as "the Franklin press" to American banker John B. Murray, who received it for the express purpose of exhibiting it to attract contributions for the London Printers' Pension Society. He shipped it to the United States to be displayed as a relic associated with Franklin. It was shown at the Patent Office, the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum before being sold to the Smithsonian by Murray's widow in 1901.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1720
- referenced
- Franklin, Benjamin
- Franklin, James
- Watts, John
- Murray, John M.
- maker
- unknown
- ID Number
- GA*14237
- accession number
- 38701
- catalog number
- 14237
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Data General-One Portable Computer
- Description
- Data General was primarily a mini-computer company. But in 1984, it introduced the Data General-One (DG-1), a breakthrough personal computer laptop. The Data General One weighed nine pounds, ran MS-DOS, had dual 3 ½" diskettes, 79-key full stroke keyboard, 128 KB to 512 KB of RAM, and a monochrome LCD screen. It ran on a CMOS 80C88 processor. Unlike other "luggable" computers of the era, the DG-1 was light enough to carry on travel, but also powerful enough to emulate a desktop.
- The DG-1 enjoyed only mediocre success. Its 3 ½" diskettes were slightly ahead of their time, and much popular software was not available in 3 ½" format. Adding to the problem, software copyright protection made copying into the 3 ½" format difficult. In addition, the DG-1 base price was relatively high at $2,895, and the real cost tended to be even higher, because users generally needed both more RAM and an external 5 ¼" drive to run disks from their desktop machines.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1984
- maker
- Data General Corporation
- ID Number
- 1995.0069.01
- accession number
- 1995.0069
- catalog number
- 1995.0069.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Grape-picking Knife
- Description
- This grape-picking knife was owned and used by Nathan Fay of Napa, Calif. Its short, curved blade and lightweight handle are typical of knives used during the annual harvest of wine grapes in the area. Although grape-picking machines are used in the large vineyards of California's Central Valley, hand tools like this are preferred on the estate vineyards in Napa. Fay personalized this knife, as do most workers who regularly pick grapes, by carving his name ("NAT") in the wooden handle and by filing the blade to sharpen its edge.
- Fay bought land in Napa Valley in 1953 and is credited with planting the first Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the Stag's Leap District. From the 1950s until 1986, he grew wine grapes for some of Napa's best wineries. In an oral history interview conducted by Museum staff in 1997, Fay described harvest time: "Maybe the most satisfying thing was I always would get out as soon as we got the crews ready in the morning, get out and start picking grapes with the crew. And two or three . . . would come pick near me and make me look pretty slow. [After] about two hours of this I was getting pretty exhausted and pretty tired, but by then a gondola would be full of grapes so I'd have to take them up to the winery. And that took an hour and a half to go up and get them unloaded and come back again. 'Course there'd be another gondola waiting as soon as I got back, so I'd pick only about an hour and a half or two hours every morning. But I enjoyed it—all the work and different things."
- user
- Fay, Nathan
- ID Number
- 1997.0304.01
- catalog number
- 1997.0304.01
- accession number
- 1997.0304
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hand Refractometer
- Description
- This refractometer was used by winemakers at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, in Napa Valley, during the 1997 harvest. Manufactured by Ty'mup Products, in Gardena, CA, this hand-held model is of the type commonly used to measure the sugar content of grapes and juice.
- Judging when grapes are ready to pick is not as straightforward as it sounds. Winemakers consider many factors before giving the go-ahead for harvest, and determining the fruit's sugar content is critical. Because sugar in wine grapes is fermented into alcohol during the winemaking process, it is important to allow the grapes to ripen to a level of sweetness that is pleasing to the palate, but not past the desired percentage of alcohol.
- While the senses of taste, sight, smell, and touch are the main instruments winemakers use, they also employ scientific devices to quantify their sensory perceptions. A hand-held refractometer is used in the field (as well as in the lab, during fermentation) to measure the "Brix" value, or the sugar content of the grapes. The user of the device presses a drop of juice against the glass plate, points it to a light source, and looks through the eyepiece. As light passes through the juice, molecules of the sugar refract the light on a scale, which assigns the sugar concentration a value. The measurement is represented by % Brix. For champagne grapes winemakers look for a reading of 19, for table wines between 21 and 24, and, for dessert wines, 27 or slightly higher.
- Winemakers don't "pick by the numbers," (the Brix value) alone, but carefully observe and taste the grapes in advance of harvest. In California, grapes typically ripen in August and September, and this is when winemakers and vineyard managers can be seen in the fields fervently monitoring their crop. Ripening depends to some extent on the variety of grape, but there are many environmental factors that influence the way fruit matures.
- Grapes planted on hillsides, for example, generally ripen more slowly than those on the valley floor because the rays of the sun are less direct and the vines are more exposed to cooling breezes.
- As harvest approaches, winemakers begin tasting fruit from different parts of the vineyard. They sample grapes several times a day, a process described by Julia Winiarski, one of the winemakers at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, in Napa Valley, during an interview with Smithsonian researchers in 1997:
- When we go out to taste fruit we have an idea in our minds of what perfectly ripe fruit tastes like and looks like and feels like when you hold a cluster. And that's the form that all of the examples have to be compared to, all the different iterations or different versions of that form are overlaid in our minds when we're tasting and walking. Some fruit won't ever be there, they won't be that perfect cluster that we see, but it's [trying to get fruit] as close to that as you can.
- maker
- Ty'mup Products
- ID Number
- 1998.0181.14
- accession number
- 1998.0181
- catalog number
- 1998.0181.14
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Vineyard end post
- Description
- While vineyards are shaped by and reflect the natural contours of the land, their distinctive look-patterned rows of neatly ordered grapevines-reveal an intensely cultural landscape. Viticulturalists don't leave much to nature or chance; they calculate the orientation of the plants within a grid, as well as the spacing of the plants, the distances between rows, and the practices for training and managing the vines. Most of the grapevines in the U.S. are grown on trellis systems-a series of vertical posts and wires-that not only support the plants, but influence how they are tended throughout the year. Trellises contribute substantially to the uniform, regimented look of modern vineyards.
- ID Number
- 1998.3058.45
- nonaccession number
- 1998.3058
- catalog number
- 1998.3058.45
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Pronto Series 16 Personal Computer
- Description
- Pronto Systems, Inc. introduced its Pronto Series 16 computer in 1983. It represented the high end of business computing of its era. The Pronto pioneered innovative design features, including a tilting and swiveling monitor, small foot print, a streamlined and adjustable keyboard, and an expandable cord that allowed the processor to be stored as much as six feet away from the monitor. These features won a 1983 design award from Industrial Design Magazine. The computer offered the first tower system—a design that later became common in the industry.
- Inside, the Pronto 16 was a powerful machine designed for the full range of business applications. It had a 16-bit Intel 80186 microprocessor. It was shipped with MS-DOS 2.0. It had 128 KB of RAM, which could be expanded to 1 MB. The standard hard drive was 5.6 MB, and it was removable. The computer had dual 800 KB floppy drives (5 ¼"), dual serial ports, one parallel port, and a high-resolution monochrome monitor. Users could buy a color monitor as an option. Base price was $3,000.
- Over 1,000 systems were sold from 1983 to 1987. The company had to file for bankruptcy when the stock market crashed while the company was in the process of going public through an Initial Public Offering.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1983-1987
- maker
- PRONTO Computers, Inc.
- ID Number
- 2001.0255.01
- catalog number
- 2001.0255.01
- accession number
- 2001.0255
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1984 Peterbilt Tractor
- Description
- This Peterbilt single-sleeper tractor was owned by Werner Enterprises, a national freight carrier founded in 1956. As high speed, limited access highways were built, demand to move small goods created opportunities for trucking companies and truck builders. Tractor-trailers replaced freight trains for many types of products. Peterbilt began making log and lumber trucks in the late 1930s and was known for tailoring its custom designed trucks to the needs of truckers. Peterbilt also pioneered the use of aluminum, which allowed greater cargo weight within legal limits. Model 359, one of Peterbilt’s workhorses, was manufactured from 1967 to 1987.
- date made
- 1984
- used date
- 1984-1987
- maker
- Peterbilt Motors Company
- ID Number
- 2003.0008.01
- accession number
- 2003.0008
- catalog number
- 2003.0008.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
AT&T 6300 Computer and VirtualVideo Producer Software
- Description
- Debuting in June 1984, model 6300 was AT&T's first entry into IBM compatible computers. It was the low end of the AT&T computer line. The machine was built by Olivetti in Italy. In comparison to the IBM PC XT, which used an 8 bit, Intel 8088 chip running at 4.7 MHz, the 6300 used a 16 bit, Intel 8086 chip that ran at 8 MHz. Although the 6300 was a good machine in its class, AT&T did not follow it up, and within several years, the company abandoned the PC clone computer market.
- This particular computer was used by computer multi-media pioneers Robert Morris and Trip Denton to create a digital multimedia authoring software, VirtualVideo Producer. Introduced in 1986—a year before hypercard—this software allowed users to produce multi-media shows with their PC and an image capture board. It is one of the first, if not the first, multi-media authoring system on the market. The presentations could incorporate images, video, text, and animations. Morris and Denton created a company, V_Graph to develop and market their product. The Smithsonian has a range of materials that document the early history of the firm. By the early 1990s, VirtualVideo Producer had matured and was bundled as Tempra with products from Creative Laboratories, Mathematica, and others. Over 300,000 copies were eventually distributed.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1984-1986
- maker
- American Telephone & Telegraph Company
- ID Number
- 2004.0117.01
- catalog number
- 2004.0117.01
- accession number
- 2004.0117
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center