Energy & Power

Hurricane Clean-up Sign

Description

No sooner had Katrina departed New Orleans in August 2005 than waves of hurricane clean-up signs went up in neighborhoods hard-hit by the storm, offering house-gutting services, mold removal, drywall replacement, and even building removal. The work was hazardous, involving the mucking out of homes and the handling of mountains of demolition debris and sodden household belongings. Many homeowners undertook their own clean-up, but much was performed by immigrant laborers attracted to the region by the promise of hard work and good wages.

The scrubbing away of the tell-tale oily high-water mark was one of the most visible challenges of the clean-up effort. Some property owners regarded this mark as a badge of survival and protect it as evidence of what they endured in 2005. Most, however, opted for the cleansing away of this stain, a bitter reminder of the terrible tide that rose in New Orleans when the levees fell.

Location

Currently not on view

Associated Date

2005

ID Number

2006.3059.10

catalog number

2006.3059.10

nonaccession number

2006.3059

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Hurricane Clean-up Sign

Description

No sooner had Katrina departed New Orleans in August 2005 than waves of hurricane clean-up signs went up in neighborhoods hard-hit by the storm, offering house-gutting services, mold removal, drywall replacement, and even building removal. The work was hazardous, involving the mucking out of homes and the handling of mountains of demolition debris and sodden household belongings. Many homeowners undertook their own clean-up, but much was performed by immigrant laborers attracted to the region by the promise of hard work and good wages.

The scrubbing away of the tell-tale oily high-water mark was one of the most visible challenges of the clean-up effort. Some property owners regarded this mark as a badge of survival and protect it as evidence of what they endured in 2005. Most, however, opted for the cleansing away of this stain, a bitter reminder of the terrible tide that rose in New Orleans when the levees fell.

Location

Currently not on view

Associated Date

2005-08-2005-09

ID Number

2006.3059.11

catalog number

2006.3059.11

nonaccession number

2006.3059

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Mailbox

Description

Thousands of homes were obliterated by the effects of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. One of those homes stood at 2005 Lizardi Street in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. This mailbox is all that remained, except for the front steps and a field of debris.

The hand-painted green flowers and butterflies on this mailbox, and the carefully lettered name and address of the Alexander family, evoke the domestic serenity that was shattered by Katrina's waters. Inside the mailbox a thick layer of dried mud recalled the wall of water that washed over this neighborhood August 29, 2005, when everything in its path was either submerged or destroyed.

The Lower Ninth Ward was a victim of the over-burdened Industrial Canal, whose concrete flood walls collapsed beneath the weight and force of the water. Further afield, a manmade navigation canal, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ("Mr. Go"), offered a short cut not only to ships leaving the Gulf headed for New Orleans but for storm water moving inland from the Gulf. It was this water that in large part flooded the Industrial Canal and devastated the Lower Ninth Ward.

Location

Currently not on view

Date made

n.d.

Associated Date

2005-08-2005-09

ID Number

2006.3059.01

nonaccession number

2006.3059

catalog number

2006.3059.01

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Edison "New Year's Eve" Lamp

Description

Thomas Edison used this carbon-filament bulb in the first public demonstration of his most famous invention, the first practical electric incandescent lamp, which took place at his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory on New Year's Eve, 1879.

As the quintessential American inventor-hero, Edison personified the ideal of the hardworking self-made man. He received a record 1,093 patents and became a skilled entrepreneur. Though occasionally unsuccessful, Edison and his team developed many practical devices in his "invention factory," and fostered faith in technological progress.

Date made

1879

used date

1879-12-31

user

Edison, Thomas Alva

maker

Edison, Thomas Alva

ID Number

EM.181797

catalog number

181797

accession number

33407

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Lewis Latimer Patent Drawing

Description

Electricity pioneer Lewis Latimer drew this component of an arc lamp, an early type of electric light, for the U.S. Electric Lighting Company in 1880.

The son of escaped slaves and a Civil War veteran at age sixteen, Latimer trained himself as a draftsman. His technical and artistic skills earned him jobs with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, among others. An inventor in his own right, Latimer received numerous patents and was a renowned industry expert on incandescent lighting.

Location

Currently not on view

Date made

1880-07-25

maker

Latimer, Lewis H.

ID Number

1983.0458.21

accession number

1983.0458

catalog number

1983.0458.21

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Victorian House Model

Description

A masterpiece of craftsmanship, this ornate model was built by Leonard Roth, a Philadelphia shoemaker, and took ten years to complete.

The house represents the French Second Empire style, which was popular in America from the 1860s to 1880s. It features a double spiral staircase, elaborate gingerbread trim, and mansard roof. With meticulous attention to detail, Roth outfitted the house with windows, a doorbell, and gaslights that actually worked.

Location

Currently not on view

ID Number

DL.60.0281

catalog number

60.0281

accession number

226177

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Morse-Vail Telegraph Key

Description

Alfred Vail made this key, believed to be from the first Baltimore-Washington telegraph line, as an improvement on Samuel Morse's original transmitter. Vail helped Morse develop a practical system for sending and receiving coded electrical signals over a wire, which was successfully demonstrated in 1844.

Morse's telegraph marked the arrival of instant long-distance communication in America. The revolutionary technology excited the public imagination, inspiring predictions that the telegraph would bring about economic prosperity, national unity, and even world peace.

Date made

1844

used date

1844

demonstrator

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese

Vail, Alfred

maker

Vail, Alfred

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese

ID Number

EM.181411

catalog number

181411

accession number

31652

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Levee Wall Fragment

Description

One of the signature events of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 was the failure of the levees of New Orleans. Seemingly impregnable earthen walls surmounted by concrete barricades turned out to be no match for the surging flood waters that turned Lake Pontchartrain into a force that devastated one of the nation's major cities.

From the earliest years of the city's establishment several feet below sea level, New Orleans has been at risk of catastrophic flooding. And yet the city's vital location at the mouth of the Mississippi River, taking in raw materials and finished goods and distributing them to the world, was too strong an economic force to be turned away. The threat of water inundation was nothing that good engineering and a few pumps could not overcome.

But some of the largest drainage pumps in the world were rendered useless on the morning of August 30th when some eighty percent of New Orleans became a part of Lake Pontchartrain. The great pump houses stood silent beneath many feet of flood water. The city that depended upon strong walls and the pumps behind them in order to stay dry had encountered a force of nature unlike anything it had experienced before: a large, strong hurricane sweeping vast quantities of ocean water into the lake at high tide.

Geological studies would later reveal that some of the earthen levees of New Orleans had been built on soft, peaty soils and that many of the concrete flood walls that topped the levees were poorly anchored. Several of these levees and their walls were undercut and then destroyed by the ponderous weight and power of the lake water.

To acknowledge the key role of the levees and walls in the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, the Smithsonian selected several decorative chunks of concrete from the damaged floodwall along the London Avenue Canal at Mirabeau Street.

This floodwall's attractive concrete ribbing faced houses that stood within several feet of the canal, houses later destroyed by waters the levee intended to keep at bay.

Location

Currently not on view

Associated Date

2005-08-2005-09

ID Number

2006.3059.02

nonaccession number

2006.3059

catalog number

2006.3059.02

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Hurricane Evacuation Route Road Sign

Description

As Hurricane Katrina approached in August 2005, over 80 percent of the residents of New Orleans fled the city during the mandatory evacuation. Thousands of residents, however, could not or would not leave.

Location

Currently not on view

Associated Date

2005

fabricator

New Orleans Department of Public Works

ID Number

2005.0284.01

accession number

2005.0284

catalog number

2005.0284.01

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Movie Costumes, R2-D2 and C-3PO

Description

In the fictional universe of George Lucas' Star Wars films, robots called droids (short for android) come in many shapes and served many purposes. Two droids—R2-D2 and C-3PO—have won enormous popularity for their supporting roles in all six of the series. In the collections of the National Museum of American History are costumes of R2-D2 and C-3PO from Return of the Jedi, released in 1983 and the third film in the Star Wars series.

Designed from artwork by Ralph McQuarrie in 1975, R2-D2 looks more like a small blue-and-white garbage can than a human being. In the films, R2-D2 is the type of droid built to interface with computers and service starships--a kind of super technician suited for tasks well beyond human capability. By turns comic and courageous, this helpmate communicates with expressive squeals and head spins, lumbers on stubby legs, and repeatedly saves the lives of human masters.

Several R2-D2 units, specialized according to function and edited into a final composite, were used for making a single movie scene. Some units were controlled remotely. Others, like this one, were costume shells, in which actor Kenny Baker sat and manipulated the droid movements.

R2-D2's sidekick and character foil, also based on art by Ralph McQuarrie, is C-3PO. Termed a protocol droid in the films, C-3PO can speak six million languages and serves the diverse cultures of Lucas' imaginary galaxy as a robotic diplomat and translator. Where R2 is terse, 3PO is talkative. Where R2 is brave, 3PO is often tentative and sometimes downright cowardly. Where R2 looks like a machine, 3PO—in spite of the distinctive gold "skin"—more closely resembles a human in movements, vision, and intelligence.

In each of the films, actor Anthony Daniels wore the C-3PO costumes. Like the R2-D2 units, more than one C-3PO costume was used for each movie.

The Star Wars films are much more than pop entertainment. Since the first of the series was released in 1977, they have been so immensely popular that they have become cultural reference points for successive American generations. And like other popular works of science fiction, they play a powerful role in shaping our vision of the future.

Likewise, the droids are more than movie stars in these influential films. They are also indicators of the place of robots in the American experience. Conceived at a time when more robots inhabited the imaginative worlds of science fiction than the real world, R2-D2 and C-3PO represent the enduring dream of having robots as personal servants, to do things we will not or cannot do for ourselves. Today, real robots are more numerous. They mostly work on industrial production lines, but researchers are working to extend the use of robots for tasks not humanly possible. It is likely we will see more of them in the future—as aids for medicine and surgery, for military and security, and even for exploring, if not a galaxy far away, at least the far reaches of our own solar system.

Location

Currently not on view

Associated Name

LUCASFILM Ltd.

ID Number

COLL.DROIDS.006000

accession number

1984.0302

catalog number

1984.0302.01

1984.0302.02

Data Source

National Museum of American History