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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Invention for Improvement in Rotary Printing Presses
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for an improvement on Hoe's rotary printing press; the invention was granted patent number 5199. The patent includes improvements to the inking apparatus, the use of a portion of the type cylinder for ink distribution, and locking type to the cylinder with tapering rules.
- date made
- ca 1847
- patent date
- 1847-07-24
- inventor
- Hoe, Richard March
- ID Number
- GA.11017
- accession number
- 48865
- catalog number
- GA*11017
- patent number
- 5199
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History