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.
1,329
Page 1 of 67
-
Curtain Tieback
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1840- 1880
- ID Number
- DL.318972.0004
- catalog number
- 318972.0004
- accession number
- 318972
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Christmas Tree Holder
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1900 - 1924
- 1880 - 1910
- patent date
- 1880-02-17
- maker
- North Brothers Manufacturing Company
- ID Number
- 1978.0180.01
- accession number
- 1978.0180
- catalog number
- 1978.0180.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Schutte Steam Injector, Patent Model
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1888
- patent date
- 1888-02-14
- inventor
- Schutte, Louis
- ID Number
- MC.309177
- catalog number
- 309177
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 377,912
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Kneass Injector, Patent Model
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1888
- patent date
- 1888-01-10
- inventor
- Kneass, Strickland L.
- ID Number
- MC.325603
- catalog number
- 325603
- accession number
- 249602
- patent number
- 376,315
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Bailey & Co. Presentation Sword, Inscribed "The City of Philadelphia to Major General George B. McClellan 1861"
- Description
- Sword: The blade of this presentation sword is long, straight, and double-edged. It has a deep narrow groove that runs down the center of both sides, and is decorated in silver chasing with United States Army trophies and floral sprays, eagles, and scroll designs. The grip of the sword is gold mounted and encircled spirally with a long chain of laurel sprays. These leaves are set with pearls. There are 67 pearls total, (there are supposed to be 69, but two are missing), on the grip alone. The space between the sprays on the obverse is set with 13 (fake) diamonds. The pommel features a gold plated eagle fighting a snake which is curled around the end of the grip and part of the knuckleguard. The knuckleguard is decorated with oak leaf scrolls and beadwork, and the center of the obverse features a medallion set diagonally with six pearls, (there are supposed to be seven pearls, but one is missing). The knuckleguard terminates in a quillon that features and oak leaf scroll. The hinged counterguard on the obverse bears McClellan's monogram, "GBMC," in a fancy script and is surrounded by oak floral sprays. The reverse of the counterguard is more simple, and features an oak scroll branch with two acorns.
- Scabbard: The gold plated scabbard bears three gold mounts and three carrying rings. The two mounts closest to the top of the sword bear a coat of arms. Under the coat of arms, the mount has been designed to look like tree bark. The last mount, at the tip of the scabbard, is the drag. It is covered in floral sprays. The top three quarters of the scabbard itself is also covered in ornate floral sprays and scroll designs. The reverse bears the maker's mark and the back of the mounts. The two mounts closest to the top are decorated like the bark of a tree, and the drag (bottom mount) is covered in floral sprays.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1861
- associated date
- 1861-07-31
- recipient
- McClellan, George B.
- presenter
- City of Philadelphia
- maker
- Bailey and Company
- ID Number
- AF.30804
- catalog number
- 30804
- accession number
- 65865
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Sulph. Quinine, Keasbey and Mattison, Philadelphia
- Description
- The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:
- For malarial diseases, preventing and curing periodic fevers, remittent fever, yellow fever, inflammatory affections, whooping cough, sunstroke, acute articular rheumatism, typhus, typhoid fever, puerperal fever, scarlet fever, smallpox, erysipelas, diphhtheria, septicemia, asthenic pneumonia, profuse sweating, pneumonia, ulcers, abscesses, eye inflammations, mucous fluxes, whooping cough, hay fever, auditory vertigo, catarrh, gonorrhea, growths, and ulcers [The National Dispensatory, 4th Edition, 1880]
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1882
- maker
- Keasbey & Mattison Company
- ID Number
- MG.M-01635
- catalog number
- M-01635
- accession number
- 69510
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Model 1882; Mounted
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1882
- used date
- 1882 -
- ID Number
- AF.25101.142
- catalog number
- 25101.142
- designer number
- 82
- accession number
- 64127
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Model 1882; Dismounted
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1882
- used date
- 1882 -
- ID Number
- AF.25101.140
- catalog number
- 25101.140
- designer number
- 82
- accession number
- 64127
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of an "Indian mask from the northwest coast of America"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of an “Indian mask from the northwest coast of America” was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in 1884 as Plate XIII.20 (p.171) 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1884
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Dall, William H.
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- block maker
- N. J. Wemmer
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0165
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0165
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of a "Canoe burial"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Canoe Burial” was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 23 on page 171 in an article by H.C. Yarrow (1871-1876) entitled “Mortuary Customs of 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
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- author
- Yarrow, Harry Crecy
- block maker
- Grottenthaler, V.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1510
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1510
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Engraved woodblock of the "Signal for 'buffalo discovered'"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Signal for ‘buffalo discovered’” was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 337 on page 532 in an article by Garrick Mallery (1831-1894) entitled “Sign Language Among 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
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- maker
- Nichols, H. H.
- author
- Mallery, Garrick
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1523
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1523
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Poster seeking draft substitutes for Citizens' Volunteer Substitute Committee
- Description
- Poster advertising a $650 bounty for men to serve as substitutes for draftees during the American Civil War. The poster, published by the Citizens' Volunteer Substitute Committee, appeals to "Veterans and Aliens about to volunteer" promising a $650 bonus on top of any government bounty for enlistment if they apply enlist as a substitute for a draftee.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca. 1863
- associated date
- 1861 - 1865
- ID Number
- 1978.0010.16
- accession number
- 1978.0010
- catalog number
- 1978.0010.16
- 85363M
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Philadelphia City Guard recruitment poster
- Description
- Recruiting poster for the Company D in the Philadelphia City Guard, officially the 157th Pennsylvania Volunteers, for service during the American Civil War. The poster advises "Don't wait to be Drafted, but Volunteer and receive the Bounty!" and highlights a combined bounty of $152 and a new gum blanket to be issued to new recruits.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca. 1863-1865
- associated date
- 1861 - 1865
- ID Number
- 1978.0010.14
- accession number
- 1978.0010
- catalog number
- 1978.0010.14
- 85361M
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Freedom to the Slave
- Description
- Chromolithograph print titled "Freedom to the Slave" published by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to encourage African American men to enlist in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The print depicts a African American man dressed in the uniform of a United States Army Artillery officer holding a sword in his right hand and in his left hand, a United States flag surmounted with a red liberty cap and thin swallow-tail flag reading "Freedom to the Slave." The man is standing on a Confederate national flag with a snake on its blue field which is being torn by a shirtless African American man who appears to have been freed from the broken shackles at his feet. Behind him, an African American man in Union Army uniform is freeing a shirtless man and woman from similar shackles while they rejoice. Further behind, a long line of African American soldiers marches in formation to the right under a United States national flag. To the left of the soldier in the center of the illustration, a respectably-dressed African American man is reading a newspaper while seated in a chair near a plow with a girl in a dress at his feet. Behind him, a group of African Americans enter a building with Public School written above its entrance and an American flag flying above, with a steeple behind it. The reverse of this dramatic illustration is a recruiting poster. From its reference to emancipation, and the phrase urging “colored men” to come “to the nearest United States Camp,” suggests this handbill may have been circulated by Union troops in the South.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1863-1864
- ID Number
- 1978.0010.11
- accession number
- 1978.0010
- catalog number
- 1978.0010.11
- 85358M
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Transit
- Description
- Heller & Brightly advertised this as an "Improved Complete Combined Transit and Leveling Instrument For Civil Engineers and Surveyors." This example is marked "Heller & Brightly Makers 5740 Philadelphia." The serial number indicates that it was made around 1884. New, the basic transit cost $220. The vertical circle was an extra $25. The horizontal circle is silvered, graduated every 30 minutes of arc, and read by verniers at N and S to single minutes. There are level vials at N (this one covers a vernier) and at E. The vertical circle, also silvered, is read by vernier to single minutes, and is protected by an aluminum guard. To reduce weight, the vertical standards are ribbed and braced. The telescope is equipped with stadia wires for determining distances.
- The tripod head of this transit allows the instrument to be leveled, and also to be adjusted horizontally in order to be brought over a fixed point on the ground. Daniel Hoffman obtained a patent (#197,369) on this design in 1877, and assigned the rights to Heller & Brightly in exchange for $5 for each unit sold.
- Ref: Heller & Brightly, Remarks on Surveying Instruments (Philadelphia, 1886).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1884
- maker
- Heller & Brightly
- ID Number
- PH.328726
- catalog number
- 328726
- accession number
- 275808
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
The War in Virginia, Lieutenant General Grant in a Council of War at Massaponax Church. 1864.
- Description
- General Ulysses S. Grant, was born Hiram Ulysses Grant at Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 1822. After attending West Point, he gained distinction fighting as a captain in the Mexican-American War. When the fighting ended, he was assigned to isolated frontier posts, where his heavy drinking interfered with his duties, leading him to resign in 1854. At the outbreak of the Civil War six years later, he immediately enlisted in the Union Army, and was promoted to brigadier general in July of 1861. In July of 1863, he captured Vicksburg, an event often seen as a turning point in the war, and was given command of all Union armies in March of 1864. Brutal engagements with Confederate forces at the battles of Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor decimated Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, and the Virginian surrendered his battered force to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. After the war, Grant’s fame carried him to the White House, and he served two terms of Presidency, from 1869 to 1877.
- This 1884 print by Christian Inger shows Grant, surrounded by his generals at a council of war in Massaponax, Virginia, shortly his promotion to general-in-chief. The men sit on church pews removed from the nearby Baptist church. Grants sits at the base of two trees, easily recognizable by the characteristic cloud of cigar smoke rising above him. The other generals are identified by a list on the bottom margin of the print, and include Sherman, Hancock, and Meade. Behind the men, Union soldiers care for the officers’ horses, and rows of cannons are displayed in the far background, ready for transport.
- This print was based on a photograph by Timothy H. O’Sullivan (1840-1882), who managed to capture the composition from the second floor of the nearby Massaponax Baptist Church. His image was printed by Scottish-born photograph Alexander Gardner (1821-1882).
- The creator of the print, Christian Inger (1814-c.1895), was born in Germany and immigrated to America in 1854. He settled in Philadelphia, where he was employed by P.S. Duval from the mid-1850s to the mid-1860s. Between the 1850s and 1870s, Inger also created lithographs for the prominent firms of Herline & Hensel and Thomas Sinclair. In 1859, he also established his own firm with his son, Egmont. Inger’s work included portraits, facsimiles of paintings, Revolutionary War and Civil War scenes, and birds-eye views of Philadelphia and the 1876 Centennial Exposition.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1886
- depicted
- Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson)
- maker
- Inger, Christian
- ID Number
- DL.60.2609
- catalog number
- 60.2609
- accession number
- 228146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Recruiting poster for the 197th Pennsylvania Volunteers
- Description
- Recruiting poster for the 3rd Coal Exchange Regiment, officially the 197th Pennsylvania Volunteers, for service during the American Civil War. The poster states "To Arms! To Arms! Rally to your country's call!" and highlights a $50 bounty for new recruits.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca. 1864
- associated date
- 1861 - 1865
- ID Number
- 1978.0010.15
- accession number
- 1978.0010
- catalog number
- 1978.0010.15
- 85362M
- 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
-
United Republicans
- Description
- An 1889 ribbon supporting Republican Benjamin Harrison.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- associated date
- 1889 03 04
- associated person
- Harrison, Benjamin
- associated institution
- Republican National Party
- ID Number
- PL.227739.1889.J23
- catalog number
- 227739.1889.J23
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
patent model, fire proof building
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1880
- patent date
- 1880-02-03
- inventor
- Gilbert, Joseph
- ID Number
- MC.336437
- catalog number
- 336437
- accession number
- 1978.0053
- patent number
- 224,173
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Pages
Filter Your Results
Click to remove a filter:
- data source
-
topic
- Photography 782
- American Civil War (1861-1865) 315
- Civil War, 1861-1865 315
- Military 280
- Designating Flags 264
- Flags 150
- Art 33
- NNC-Certified Proofs-Face-PA-box 6 33
- NNC-Certified Proofs-Face-PA-box 17 25
- NNC-Certified Proofs-Face-PA-box 7 22
- Communications 12
- Nudity 12
- NNC-Certified Proofs-Face-PA-box 8 11
- United States Double Eagle 11
- NNC-Certified Proofs-Face-PA-box 18 10
- Men 9
- Portraits 9
- Antietam, Battle of, Md., 1862 8
- Woman 8
- NNC-Certified Proofs-Face-PA-box 15 7
- object type
- date
- place
- culture
-
set name
- Work and Industry: Photographic History 782
- Photography 776
- Eadweard Muybridge Cyanotypes 770
- Military 280
- Political and Military History: Armed Forces History, Military 276
- Civil War 266
- Designating Flags 264
- Flags 264
- Coins, Currency and Medals 152
- Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection 152
- Art 37
- Work and Industry: Graphic Arts 37
- Medicine and Science: Medicine 36
- Communications 12
- Cultural and Community Life: Domestic Life 12
- United States Double Eagle 11
- Seville Collection 7
- Ferris Collection 6
- Cultural and Community Life: Musical Instruments 5
- Cultures & Communities 5
