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.
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NorthStar Horizon Personal Computer
- Description
- Northstar developed from a computer store called "The Original Kentucky Fried Computer." It changed its name due to impending litigation by Kentucky Fried Chicken! The company's first product was a Floating Point Math Board for S-100 computers. They then developed an inexpensive floppy drive system. This led the way to the Horizon, one of the first computers with built in floppy drives.
- Announced in November 1977, the Horizon was sold in a wooden cabinet, as opposed to the more usual metal or plastic. The initial price was $1,899 assembled and $1,599 unassembled. The Horizon ran on a Z-80 microprocessor that ran at 4 MHz. It contained 16 KB of RAM, which could be expanded to 64 KB and 1 KB of ROM. The operating system was both CP/M and Northstar DOS. The machine was among the first to offer floppy drives, and customers could order one or two 90 KB 5 ¼" drives. Northstar was also one of the first machines to offer a hard disk drive. This was called an HD-18, and had 18 Megabytes on an 18" platter. The Northstar Horizon was suited for business, education, and software development applications.
- This particular machine was donated to the Smithsonian by Peter A. McWilliams, author of the popular book, The Personal Computer book, (1983) which became a runaway bestseller. This was his first computer.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1977
- maker
- Northstar
- ID Number
- 1989.0354.01
- catalog number
- 1989.0354.01
- accession number
- 1989.0354
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Kaypro IV Portable Computer
- Description
- Kaypro was a manufacturer of portable microcomputers running the CP/M operating system. Its first commercial model, Kaypro II, was launched in 1982. The Kaypro IV was introduced in 1983. Surprisingly, it is not the same as the Kaypro 4, which was released in 1984.
- The Kaypro IV was basically a Kaypro II with added Double Sided/Double Density Drives. It had a Z80 microprocessor that ran at 2.5 MHz. The memory included 4 KB of RAM and 2 KB of ROM. Kaypro IV had a 9" monochrome monitor and a built-in speaker. The operating system was CP/M 2.2. The Kaypro IV included the word processor Wordstar, which was included in the Perfect Software Suite.
- The introduction of the IBM PC in 1981 led to the rapid growth in popularity of the MS-DOS operating system for personal computers. Software developers migrated to writing for MS-DOS instead of CP/M. Kaypro was slow to make the transition in their machines, and the company never gained the kind of prominence in the MS-DOS arena that it had enjoyed with CP/M. A prime competitor for the MS-DOS portable market was Compaq, which sold an "all in one" computer that was similar to its own CP/M portable. In March 1990 Kaypro filed for bankruptcy.
- This Kaypro IV was purchased with funds from a research grant obtained by Robert M. Smith, of the Department of Space History of the National Air and Space Museum. Smith's book, The Space Telescope, was written in part on this computer.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1983
- maker
- Kaypro
- ID Number
- 1992.0522.01
- catalog number
- 1992.0522.01
- accession number
- 1992.0522
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Digital Equipment Rainbow 100 Computer
- Description
- In the early 1980s, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was the second largest computer company in the United States, following IBM, and was the leading producer of minicomputers. DEC had missed the initial development of personal computers, but decided to enter the market with a 16 bit machine. In 1982, it introduced the DEC Rainbow 100, for a price of $2,500.
- The Rainbow 100 had both a Z-80 and an Intel 8088 microprocessor that ran at 4 MHz. It had 64 KB or RAM and 24 KB of ROM and had two built in floppy drives that could accommodate 400 KB single-sided quad density disk. It had three operating systems: MS-DOS, CP/M-86, and CP/M. Users made a selection by a menu at boot time. The Rainbow could be used for word processing, spreadsheets, and games, although it had a monochrome screen. In addition to operating as a stand-alone computer, the Rainbow worked effectively as a VT-100 or VT-220 terminal emulator on larger machines, such as DEC's minicomputers. Although the Rainbow was a powerful and effective personal computer, it was not fully compatible with IBM systems, and eventually was overshadowed and undersold by IBM clones.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1982
- maker
- Digital Equipment Corporation
- ID Number
- 1994.0078.01.1
- accession number
- 1994.0078
- catalog number
- 1994.0078.01.1
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Drawing of Hall Mark Quirk Quality
- Description
- This original artwork in pencil, ink, and wash was created for a printed piece advertising the services of Chicago wood engraver Nicholas J. Quirk about 1900. The design, including a wood block, engraving tools, and a woodpecker as a symbol of the trade, was modified for use as a logo by the Brotherhood of Engravers in 1902.
- The Quirk Collection represents a significant body of work by N. J. Quirk (1863–1940) and his son Nicholas Paul Quirk (1898–1983), together with numerous business cards and specimen sheets from their fellow wood engravers and printing concerns, mostly in the midwestern United States, but also from Canada and Japan. Engraved wood blocks, electrotype plates, photographs, original artwork, proofs, prints, brochures, catalogs and other examples of commercial illustration and wood engraving, plus associated reference material, are included. Subjects represented include portraits (including six Presidents, Joseph Conrad, and Charles Lindbergh), machinery, jewelry, maritime and military work, holiday offerings, and printing trade and union-related items. Most of the 454 catalogued items date from the 1880s up through the 1970s.
- Evidence in the collection suggests that Nicholas J. Quirk worked as superintendent of the wood-engraving department of Henderson-Achert Lithography Company in Cincinnati and had his own business there as Quirk & Co., before moving to Chicago in the 1890s. He had his own business at several Chicago addresses and worked for the Globe Engraving and Electrotype Company and the Hawtin Engraving Company. Around 1900 he styled himself as a "marine illustrator." Nicholas Paul Quirk spent his entire working life in Chicago, first with his father and later at the Zacher Engraving Company, where wood engraver Judith Jaidinger Szesko also worked during the 1960s. Mrs Szesko donated the Quirk Collection to NMAH in 1996.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1900
- graphic artist
- Quirk, Nicholas J.
- ID Number
- 1996.0197.031
- catalog number
- 1996.0197.031
- accession number
- 1996.0197
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Barber's Tools
- Description
- This barber's kit included a pair of scissors, a manual clipper, straight razors, and a brush. Barbering has long been an independent, respectable way to earn a living. These tools belonged to an itinerant barber in Puerto Rico. In the 1930s and 1940s, la zafra, the sugar harvest, brought younger men, women, and families from the rural highlands and the urban coastal regions together. Itinerant barbers followed the sugar harvest, earning a significant part of their income.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- early 20th century
- ID Number
- 1997.0097.0835.001
- accession number
- 1997.0097
- catalog number
- 1997.0097.0835.001
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Krispy Automatic Ring-King Junior Doughnut Machine
- Description
- 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 small retail operations around the United States and abroad. The Ring-King Junior could produce about 60 dozen doughnuts an hour, and was used until the late 1960s.
- This doughnut machine was part of a collection of artifacts and archival materials donated to the Museum in 1997 on the 60th anniversary of the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation. The collection documents the history of an American business enterprise and also provides a view into food technology, marketing, and southern regional food traditions.
- maker
- Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation
- ID Number
- 1997.0179.01
- accession number
- 1997.0179
- catalog number
- 1997.0179.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Budding Knife
- Description
- This knife was used by Nathan Fay (1914-2001), the California grape grower credited with planting the first Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in the Stag's Leap District of Napa Valley. Since Fay's first planting in 1961, the variety has become well established and the district is internationally known for its fine Cabernet Sauvignon vintages. When he donated this budding knife to the Smithsonian in 1997, Fay estimated he had used it to bud some 4,000 to 5,000 plants. He added that, in his prime, he was able to bud about 400 vines in a day, and, in his lifetime, he had probably budded some 12,000 plants.
- The first step in budding new vines is to plant rootstock resistant to phylloxera, the devastating insect that attacks the roots of Vitis vinifera, the Eurasian species of grapes from which the world's best table wines are made. Although grapes native to North America are phylloxera-resistant, their fruit does not equal the kind of complex, classical wine produced by the V. vinifera species. Consequently, American viticulturalists have learned to plant "resistant" rootstock, typically hybrids of species native to the New World. It is on this rootstock that they graft the buds from V. vinifera wood.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- maker
- Henkels Dansk
- ID Number
- 1997.0304.03
- accession number
- 1997.0304
- catalog number
- 1997.0304.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apple IIGS Personal Computer
- Description
- The computers in the Apple II family were among the most popular personal computers in the late 1970s and 1980s. The last model and most impressive of the Apple II family was the Apple II GS (GS=graphics + sound). When it was released in September of 1986—Apple's 10th anniversary—at the price of $999 (without a monitor—or $1498 with an RGB monitor), the Apple II GS competed against other computers such as the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST.
- The Apple II GS used the Western Design Center 65816 16 bit microprocessor, which ran at 2.8 Mhz. It had 256 KB of RAM, which could be expanded to 8 MB. There were seven slots to accommodate an expansion of memory. It was the first computer to utilize the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) which linked standard input device such as keyboards, mice, and graphics tablets. This made it possible for Apple to sell a single set of peripherals that both the Apple Computer and later the Macintosh could use. The IIGS display had a 600 X 200 pixel mode with 2-bit palletized cooler and a 320 X 200 pixel mode with a 4-bit palletized color. The Apple II GS could display 256 colors on the screen. Its ProDOS 16 as system software allowed users to handle any number of open files at the same time.
- The IIGS seemed well positioned to capture a large market. However, by the time it was released, Apple was putting its energy into developing the Macintosh and the IIGS suffered from limited marketing. Apple discontinued the line in December 1992.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1986
- maker
- Apple Computer
- ID Number
- 1998.0199.01
- catalog number
- 1998.0199.01
- accession number
- 1998.0199
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Salter letter scale
- Description (Brief)
- A small spring scale, used to weigh letters, marked D and OZ. The mechanism and its housing are made of metal, possibly aluminum. The front piece on which the scale is printed is made of cream celluloid.
- ID Number
- 2006.0098.1619
- catalog number
- 2006.0098.1619
- accession number
- 2006.0098
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Knife
- Description
- This is a curved metal knife used by Isaias Sanchez to cut palm fronds and dates from date trees. Isaias Sanchez used this knife in California when he was brought in from Mexico under a Federal temporary guest worker program commonly known as the Bracero Program. More then 2 million guest workers were brought in between 1942 and 1964 under this program. Workers were used mainly in agricultural fields, orchards, and cotton fields. U.S. growers wanted a source of cheap, efficient, and temporary labor. American farm workers and union officials were worried about loss of jobs, lower wages, poor working conditions, and lack of representation. Communities on both sides of the border experienced periods of economic prosperity as workers spent money or sent money home. This program had a direct impact on immigration and labor policy but more importantly on the formation of thriving Mexican American communities here in the U.S.
- date made
- ca 1963
- ID Number
- 2007.0107.01
- accession number
- 2007.0107
- catalog number
- 2007.0107.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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