Natural Resources

The natural resources collections offer centuries of evidence about how Americans have used the bounty of the American continent and coastal waters. Artifacts related to flood control, dam construction, and irrigation illustrate the nation's attempts to manage the natural world. Oil-drilling, iron-mining, and steel-making artifacts show the connection between natural resources and industrial strength.
Forestry is represented by saws, axes, a smokejumper's suit, and many other objects. Hooks, nets, and other gear from New England fisheries of the late 1800s are among the fishing artifacts, as well as more recent acquisitions from the Pacific Northwest and Chesapeake Bay. Whaling artifacts include harpoons, lances, scrimshaw etchings in whalebone, and several paintings of a whaler's work at sea. The modern environmental movement has contributed buttons and other protest artifacts on issues from scenic rivers to biodiversity.


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Plate 95. Mechanicsville, Virginia
- Description
- Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by John Reekie, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.
- A pretentious title for a collection of about a dozen ordinary Virginia houses, including blacksmith shop and store; yet what memories crowd upon the mind at the mention of its name. Memories of the grand old Army of the Potomac, in its youthful flush, digging, hewing, and battling courageously with the Confederates, and their deadly ally, the Chickahominy; of tropical rains that in a day would transform luxuriant meadows into lakes, and make surging floods where before were stagnant pools; of bridges, built through swamps by armed battalions, and of that storm of battle which ended at Malvern Hill. Early in June, 1862, as the Army of the Potomac extended its wings along both banks of the Chickahominy, Mechanicsville fell into our possession. There was a struggle at Beaver Dam Creek and on the neighboring fields, the defenders finally retreating in disorder down the pike, and over the bridge, towards Richmond, three and a half miles distant. The skirmishers sacked the store and dwellings, the blacksmith's forge was immediately put in use by the cavalry and artillery, and the surgeons took possession of the houses for hospitals.
- The pickets of each army watched the bridge with jealous eyes till the Union lines were withdrawn, on the 26th of June, and the enemy retaking the village, forced an engagement at Beaver Dam Creek, where they were repulsed by Fitz John Porter's troops. The two-story house, with a fence, seen in the photograph, is on the turnpike to Richmond. In front of this house a barricade was thrown across the road, which was defended by two howitzers, planted to sweep the pike in case a dash should be made by the enemy for the recovery of the place.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1865-04
- maker
- Gardner, Alexander
- ID Number
- 1986.0711.0283.45
- accession number
- 1986.0711
- catalog number
- 1986.0711.0283.45
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Plate 80. Johnson's Mill, near Petersburg
- Description
- Text and photograph from Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II. Negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.
- This property, recently, and for many years, better known as Furt's Mill, is situated just below Bolling's Dam, on the Appomattox River, near Campbell's Bridge. It is one of the several large establishments which the city of Petersburg boasts for the manufacture of flour. At the height of the grinding season, we are informed, it is capable of turning out about three hundred barrels daily.
- The dam constitutes the terminus of tide-water on this stream, and, with its surroundings, is the subject of one of "Shaw's Illustrations of American Scenery," published in New York, on a large scale, upwards of forty years ago.
- The Mill, we further learn, was originally built in seventeen hundred and seventy-three by Mr. Bolling.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1865-05
- maker
- Gardner, Alexander
- ID Number
- 1986.0711.0283.30
- accession number
- 1986.0711
- catalog number
- 1986.0711.0283.30
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Scrimshaw Whale Bone Food Chopper
- Description
- Simply carved and without any engraving, this food chopper, or mincer, was made in two pieces from a sperm whale’s jawbone. Its blunted, curved blade was used to chop soft foods such as bread dough, fruits, sausage, and animal fats. This example was donated by former Secretary of the Institution Spencer F. Baird (1823–1887) to the Smithsonian, where it became one of the earliest objects in the maritime collections.
- date made
- 1800s
- purchased
- 1876-11-30
- ID Number
- AG.024909
- catalog number
- 24909
- accession number
- 2009.0157
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Whaler's Explosive Lance
- Description
- Explosive lances were designed to kill a whale by exploding inside its body. Many different types were invented in the late 19th century. When they worked properly, they were extremely efficient.
- They could either be shot out of guns or set at the end of darting guns. These devices resembled harpoon handles, to which the explosive lances were fixed. Once a plunger touching the whale’s skin moved a specific length, it triggered an explosive charge that shot the lance into the whale’s body.
- date made
- late 1800s
- patent date
- 1879
- explosive lances were invented
- late 19th century
- patentee
- Pierce, Eben
- manufacturer
- Brown, Frank E.
- ID Number
- AG.316544
- catalog number
- 316544
- accession number
- 066767
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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