Energy & Power
The Museum's collections on energy and power illuminate the role of fire, steam, wind, water, electricity, and the atom in the nation's history. The artifacts include wood-burning stoves, water turbines, and windmills, as well as steam, gas, and diesel engines. Oil-exploration and coal-mining equipment form part of these collections, along with a computer that controlled a power plant and even bubble chambers—a tool of physicists to study protons, electrons, and other charged particles.
A special strength of the collections lies in objects related to the history of electrical power, including generators, batteries, cables, transformers, and early photovoltaic cells. A group of Thomas Edison's earliest light bulbs are a precious treasure. Hundreds of other objects represent the innumerable uses of electricity, from streetlights and railway signals to microwave ovens and satellite equipment.
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Engraved woodblock of an American Indian woman
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a portrait of an American Indian woman was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. for the Bureau of American Ethnology in about 1880.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0528
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0528
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Egyptian Street Scene
- Description
- James David Smillie etched Frederick Arthur Bridgman’s painting of a Middle Eastern street scene Lady of Cairo Visiting for the American Art Review issue of June 1881. Commenting on the issue, the New York Times noted that Smillie had been “particularly happy in his drawing” of the donkey, which appears prominently in the print.
- A catalogue raisonné of Smillie’s prints has estimated that about 10,000 impressions of this scene were made, primarily for use as art magazine illustrations. To produce such a large number of prints from a copper plate, a soft metal that deteriorates with use, the publishers would have had to face the copper by electroplating. In this process (known as “steel facing”), a thin layer of iron is deposited on the copper plate.
- Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847–1928) trained with Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris and later was known as “the American Gérôme.” He made a number of trips from his Paris base to North Africa and Egypt to sketch and collect artifacts for his paintings of Egyptian and Algerian subjects.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1881
- original artist
- Bridgman, Frederick Arthur
- graphic artist
- Smillie, James David
- ID Number
- GA.14802
- catalog number
- 14802
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Portrait of William Baker
- Description
- Stephen Ferris etched the portrait of distinguished Philadelphian William Spohn Baker in 1882. Baker (1824–1897), a critic and author, wrote several books, including American Engravers and Their Works and The Origin and Antiquity of Engraving. An antiquarian who specialized in George Washington, he collected medals, biographies, and engraved portraits of the first president, and wrote about these subjects. Baker was an active member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, serving as a vice president from 1892 and also as a director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1882
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14536.16
- catalog number
- 14536.16
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Washington jobber
- Description (Brief)
- This clamshell jobber was built by John M. Jones of Palmyra, New York in about 1885. The feedboards, rod between the treadle and crank, throw-off handle, and flywheel are replacements. One gripper is missing. There are old repairs to the frame, platen base, and gripper bar. The press has a height of 48 inches a length of 45 inches and a width of 33 inches; its chase measures 8 inches by 12 inches; its platen measures 8.5 inches by 14 inches.
- John Jones of Palmyra was a successful and well-respected manufacturer of a dozen different platen jobbing presses, several of them based on George P. Gordon’s ideas. Jones's Washington press, produced from about 1880 to 1889, contained a simpler clamshell action, but included Jones’s patent impression-adjustment device, and—after 1884—his patent friction clutch as a throw-off mechanism. This press is unmarked except for the word PATENT on the handle of the platen clip, and “S.W.” etched into the rim of the flywheel. The platen is adjusted by two bolts (the handles protrude under the feed table), working on the rod that acts as a fulcrum for the platen; there are no adjustment screws behind the platen itself. The platen is thin for its size, but backed by the deep webbing that is characteristic of Jones’s presses.
- Donated by Patricia E. Schneider, 1995.
- Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1880-1889
- date made
- ca 1885
- maker
- Jones, John
- Jones, John
- Jones, John
- ID Number
- 1995.0142.01
- catalog number
- 1995.0142.01
- accession number
- 1995.0142
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Portrait of Man with an Earring
- Description (Brief)
- The pen and ink portrait, signed and dated 1882, shows a man who might be North African, perhaps someone Ferris sketched on his trip to North Africa and Spain in 1881 and worked up later when he returned to Philadelphia.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1882
- maker
- Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
- ID Number
- GA.16621
- catalog number
- 16621
- accession number
- 119780
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of a "Handled cup, province of Tusayan"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Handled cup, Province of Tusayan” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in 1886 as 298 (p.327) in an article by William H. Holmes (1846-1933) entitled “Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos” in the Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1882-83.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1886
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Holmes, William Henry
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0152
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0152
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of a "Dancer holding up the great plumed arrow"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock for “Dancer holding up the great plumed arrow” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published as Figure 54 (p.434) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “The Mountain Chant: a Navajo ceremony” in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1883-84.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1887
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- block maker
- A. P. J. & Co.
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0438
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0438
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Young America "Secretary Press"
- Description (Brief)
- This self-inking, bench-top, lever press was is known as a Young America, Circular Press. It was manufactured after 1870 until about 1895 by Joseph Watson, of the Young American Company, in New York. The press has a height of ?
- Like other Young Americans described here separately this press style came in different sizes, each size denoted by a different name. The 4 inch by 6 inch size platen press was called the Circular.
- Donated by Stan Harris, 2001.
- Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Personal Impressions, The Small Printing Press in Nineteenth-Century America, 2004.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- c. 1880
- date made
- after 1870
- maker
- Watson, Joseph
- ID Number
- 2001.0274.02
- catalog number
- 2001.0274.02
- accession number
- 2001.0274
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of hand signs for the letters 'S' through 'Y'
- Description
- This engraved woodblock shows hand signs for the letters "S" through "Y." The illustration was used in a publication relating to the gesture-signs and signals of the North American Indians by Garrick Mallery; it was prepared and printed by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. for the Bureau of American Ethnology in about 1880.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Mallery, Garrick
- block maker
- Grottenthaler, V.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1368
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1368
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Jarvis General Hospital Baltimore, Maryland
- Description (Brief)
- Color lithograph. “Jarvis General Hospital, Baltimore Maryland.” Image of large hospital grounds with many buildings; vignette of entrance centered into bottom margin. Date 1868 added in pencil at LR.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1868
- maker
- Edward Sachse and Company
- ID Number
- 2014.0271.13
- accession number
- 2014.0271
- catalog number
- 2014.0271.13
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of a "Haida medicine rattle"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Haida medicine rattle” was prepared by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Plate XXII.50 (p.189) in an article by William Healey Dall (1845-1927) entitled “On Masks, Labrets, and Certain Aboriginal Customs with an Inquiry into the Bearing of Their Geographical Distribution” in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1881-82. According to the annual report, the mask shows “the shaman, frog, and kingfisher with continuous tongues.” The image was drawn from a “specimen obtained by J. G. Swan [(1818-1900)] at Port Townsend, W. T. from a Queen Charlotte Island Haida.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1884
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Dall, William H.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1294
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1294
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of a "Navajo Indian with silver ornaments"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Navajo Indian with silver ornaments" was prepared, after a photograph, by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published as Plate XX (p. 178) in an article by Dr. Washington Matthews (1843-1905) entitled “Navajo Silversmiths” in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1880-81.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1883
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Matthews, Washington
- block maker
- J. J. & Co.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0442
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0442
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
S. J. Ferris Self-portrait
- Description
- Stephen James Ferris etched this self-portrait in October of 1880, probably as one of the prints exchanged by members of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers. Ferris was a founding member of the society, which formed earlier that year, three years after the establishment of the New York Etching Club, the first in the United States. Ferris had seen the etching process demonstrated in 1860 by John Sartain, an engraver. In 1875 Ferris produced one of his earliest etchings to be commercially published in the United States, a portrait of Mariano Fortuny (1838–1874).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1880
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14388.02
- accession number
- 94830
- catalog number
- 14388
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Commodore Foote/ USN
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted (sitter)
- Foote, Andrew H.
- maker
- Ehrgott, Forbriger & Co.
- ID Number
- 2014.0250.34
- accession number
- 2014.0250
- catalog number
- 2014.0250.34
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln
- Description
- Stephen J. Ferris, a Philadelphia painter and etcher, specialized in portraiture. He etched this portrait of Abraham Lincoln in 1881, noting in pencil at the lower right that this print was the earliest proof he took from the plate. Ferris etched many subjects for a variety of publications, including art periodicals and special editions of etchings. He made both original prints and reproductive etchings after works by other artists in other media.
- This image, like several other portrait prints of Lincoln, is based on the popular photograph made by the Mathew Brady studio in 1864. Ferris collected prints and photographs to aid him in his work, and his print collection came to the Smithsonian as a gift from the Ferris family.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1881
- depicted
- Lincoln, Abraham
- graphic artist
- Ferris, Stephen James
- ID Number
- GA.14531
- catalog number
- 14531
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of a "House-burial"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “House-burial” was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887); the print was published by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. in 1881 as Figure 27 (p. 175) in an article by Dr. H. C. Yarrow (1840-1929) entitled “Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians” in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1879-80.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- author
- Yarrow, Harry Crecy
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0084
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0084
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Golding Official No. 6 jobber
- Description (Brief)
- This self-inking platen jobbing press was made by William Golding of Boston in about 1880. Its chase measures 10 inches by 15 inches.
- The press was the largest of Golding’s Officials, a series that ranged up from a tabletop press with platen of 2 inches by 3 inches. A heavy press in build, the press is particularly light and smooth in operation.
- Purchased in 1985.
- Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- circa 1880
- date made
- ca 1880
- maker
- Golding, William H.
- ID Number
- 1985.0559.01
- accession number
- 1985.0559
- catalog number
- 1985.0559.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
O.P. Morton/ Governor of Indiana
- Location
- Currently not on view
- depicted (sitter)
- Morton, O. P.
- maker
- Ehrgott, Forbriger & Co.
- ID Number
- 2014.0250.28
- accession number
- 2014.0250
- catalog number
- 2014.0250.28
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Preface/To a Written Address... the 1st day of September 1860...
- Description (Brief)
- Broadside written by Daniel Boyer alerting people to his public address opposing the extension of slavery into the new territories and the “Fraudulent Lecompton Constitution.” Dated Boyertown, PA, July 17, 1860 .
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- July 17, 1860
- maker
- Boyer, Daniel
- ID Number
- 2014.0271.02
- accession number
- 2014.0271
- catalog number
- 2014.0271.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Foghorn
- Description
- This galvanized metal foghorn was a standard piece of equipment on 19th-century fishing dories. It was used to convey the dory’s location during winter snowstorms and heavy fog. In such conditions, a member of the crew aboard the schooner would pump a larger foghorn continuously to make sure the dorymen were aware of the schooner’s location.
- Dories were small, open boats equipped with a sail and oars. Stacks of them were carried aboard large fishing schooners. Once a schooner reached the offshore fishing grounds, the dories were set in the water and manned by pairs of crewmen. These fishermen set their trawls—long lines with baited hooks—and then hauled them in, removing the fish into the dory. Once their dory was filled, the fishermen rowed or sailed back to the schooner to offload the catch and rebait the hooks, if needed.
- The prospect of getting separated from the schooner in bad weather and thick fog was a constant worry among fishermen on Georges and the Grand Banks. In addition to a dory compass, a water bottle, and hardtack, the foghorn was an essential part of a doryman’s survival kit.
- Date made
- 1880s
- maker
- Wilcox, Crittenden & Co.
- ID Number
- AG.029382
- catalog number
- 029382
- accession number
- 12705
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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