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 126 items.
Page 1 of 13
Máquina de Margaritas Heladas
- Description
- In the 70's, the margarita surpassed the martini as the most popular American cocktail and salsa surpassed ketchup as the most-used American condiment. Today, Mexican cuisine, in all its modified, regionalized, commercialized, and even highly processed varieties, has become as American as apple pie. Mariano Martinez, a young Texas entrepreneur, and his frozen margarita machine were at the crossroads of that revolution. The margarita was first made on the California-Mexican border, and became associated with the service of Mexican food, particularly, with one of its variants, Tex-Mex, a regional cuisine that became popular all across the United States. In 1971, Martinez adapted a soft serve ice cream machine to create the world's first frozen margarita machine for his new Dallas restaurant, Mariano's Mexican Cuisine. With their blenders hard-pressed to produce a consistent mix for the newly popular drink they made from Mariano's father's recipe, his bartenders were in rebellion. Then came inspiration in the form of a Slurpee machine at a 7-Eleven, a machine invented in Dallas in 1960 to make carbonated beverages slushy enough to drink through a straw. The soft-serve ice cream machine that Martinez adapted to serve his special drink was such a success that, according to Martinez, "it brought bars in Tex-Mex restaurants front and center. People came to Mariano's for that frozen margarita out of the machine." Never patented, many versions of the frozen margarita machine subsequently came into the market. After 34 years of blending lime juice, tequila, ice, and sugar for enthusiastic customers, the world's first frozen margarita machine was retired to the Smithsonian.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1970
- maker
- Sani-Serv
- ID Number
- 2005.0226.01
- catalog number
- 2005.0226.01
- accession number
- 2005.0226
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bracero Standing for Photographs
- Description
- Photograph: A bracero stands for identification photographs at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas, while others wait in line.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.01
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros Receiving Identification Photographs
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros receive their identification photographs at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas, while others wait in line.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.02
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros Receiving Identification Photographs
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros receive their identification photographs at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas, while others wait in line.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.03
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bracero Getting an X-ray
- Description
- Photograph: A bracero receives a chest X-ray during a physical examination at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.05
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bracero Getting an X-ray
- Description
- Photograph: A bracero receives a chest X-ray during a physical examination at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.06
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bracero Getting an X-ray
- Description
- Photograph: A bracero receives a chest X-ray during a physical examination at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.07
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Bracero Getting an X-ray
- Description
- Photograph: A bracero receives a chest X-ray during a physical examination at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas, while others wait in line.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.08
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros Waiting for X-rays
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros wait in line for chest X-rays at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.09
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.09
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros Waiting for X-rays
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros wait in line for chest X-rays at the Hidalgo Processing Center, Texas.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.02.10
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.02.10
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center