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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Second Exhibition of the Metropolitan Mechanics Institute
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- ZZ.RSN79761U01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Union type chest Headquarters Army of Potomac, Printing Department, No. 6, about 1863
- Description
- This type chest, measuring roughly 1’H x 2.5’W x 1.5’D, was purchased from L. Johnson & Company for the Printing Department of the Union Army of the Potomac. At least five other type chests were made for that unit. The top of the chest reads Headquarters Army of Potomac, Printing Department, No. 6. A virtually identical chest markedNo. 5 is displayed at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1863
- maker
- L. Johnson & Company
- issuing authority
- Army of the Potomac
- ID Number
- 1982.0203.2739
- accession number
- 1982.0203
- catalog number
- 1982.0203.2739
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Adams Cottage press, No. 4
- Description (Brief)
- This hand cylinder press was made by the Adams Press Company of New York in about 1862. It is marked in its casting “Patented March 19 1861.” Its bed measures 11.5 inches by 13 inches.
- The Adams Cottage Press was patented by Albert Adams in 1861, and manufactured by Joseph Watson operating as the Adams Press Company, New York. The press was advertised as a portable do-it-yourself press for amateurs and businessmen, but its portability soon appealed to the armies and navies of the Civil War. This particular press arrived at the Museum with a traveling chest of type with the painted words, “HEAD QUARTERS, ARMY OF POTOMAC, NO. 6, PRINTING DEPARTMENT.”
- Purchased in 1982.
- Citation: Elizabeth Harris, "Printing Presses in the Graphic Arts Collection," 1996.
- Description
- Every Man His Own Printer! advertised the makers of the Lowe and Adams presses. Easy to use, these presses inspired military and amateur printers during and after the Civil War to make use of the portable presses to print military orders, receipts, billheads, and other documents.
- Albert Adams's New York cylinder press was described as useful for the armed forces and merchants. It was patented on March 19, 1861, and manufactured and distributed by entrepreneur Joseph Watson and the Adams Press Company in New York.
- The Adams Cottage Press was designed without a frisket. The frisket, a separate inner frame hinged to the cloth-covered tympan, served to hold the paper in place and protect the printed sheet. The press included an automatic tympan which closed with the movement of the cylinder. The Adams Cottage Press and other portable presses did not include a self-inking system. The type was inked by hand, a sheet of paper was placed over the inked type, and the bed of the press was cranked below the cylinder to produce an impression and the printed sheet.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1861
- ca 1862
- maker
- Adams, Albert
- manufacturer
- Adams Press Company
- ID Number
- 1982.0203.2740
- accession number
- 1982.0203
- catalog number
- 1982.0203.2740
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Hand stamp
- Date made
- 1867
- circa 1867
- patent date
- November 19, 1867
- maker
- Willbur, J. M.
- ID Number
- 1971.293320.2983
- accession number
- 293320
- patent number
- 071105
- catalog number
- 1971.293320.2983
- 1971.293320.2983
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Typesetting and Distributing Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a typesetting and distributing machine which was granted patent number 28463. Typing at the keyboard perforated a paper tape to produce a complete "registry" of the keystrokes, including all spacing and leading. This record could be used to set several identical pages of type or, fed in reverse, to redistribute the type to its cases. The keyboard is missing from the model.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1860
- patent date
- 1860-05-29
- maker
- Felt, Charles W.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.028463
- accession number
- 89797
- patent number
- 028463
- catalog number
- GA*89797.028463
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 7413. The platen jobbing press was manufactured as Hawkes's Lion.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1850
- patent date
- 1850-06-04
- maker
- Hawkes, Charles W.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.007413
- patent number
- 7413
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.007413
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model of a Hand Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking bench-top press for cards or sheets; the invention was granted patent number 24655. It was the basis for the Newburys' Mountain Jobber or Machine Jobber. Early models followed the patent closely, but later (about 1871) the press had a sloping ink disk. A. N. Kellogg produced a modification of the press, which he patented in 1863 (Patent 37293).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1859
- patent date
- 1859-07-05
- maker
- Newbury, Alonzo
- Newbury, Boliver
- ID Number
- GA.11021
- catalog number
- GA*11021
- accession number
- 48865
- patent number
- 024655
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen jobbing press with stationary vertical type bed below a flat ink distributing surface in the same plane as the type. The lower part of the ink table shifted sideways, for better distribution. The invention was granted patent number 86064.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1869
- patent date
- 1869-01-19
- maker
- Forbush, Walter H.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.086064
- patent number
- 086064
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.086064
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model of a Platen Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a platen printing press which was granted patent number 87185. The patent covered various improvements on the inventor's earlier Universal press, a popular platen jobber in which the platen had a parallel approach to the bed. Merritt Gaily (born 1838) was apprenticed to a printer at 11, and he built a cylinder and a platen press while in his teens. In 1869 he set up a factory to build his new Universal press.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- ca 1869
- patent date
- 1869-11-23
- maker
- Gally, Merritt
- ID Number
- GA.89797.097185
- patent number
- 097185
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.097185
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent model of a Lithographic Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a lithographic printing press which was granted patent number 145420. The patent detailed adapting a hand press to power. Power sent the stone under the scraper and returned it. The inking of the form and the placing of the paper were performed by hand.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1873
- patent date
- 1873-12-09
- maker
- Huber, Berthold
- ID Number
- GA.89797.145420
- patent number
- 145420
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.145420
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model of a Lithographic Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a lithographic printing press which was granted patent number 87950. The flatbed cylinder press included an adjustable bed, an apparatus to lift the rollers from the stone, and a receiving cylinder with grippers to take the sheet from the impression cylinder. Marinoni, a leading French press builder, assigned these patent rights to R. Hoe & Co.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1869
- patent date
- 1869-03-16
- maker
- Marinoni, Auguste H.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.087950
- patent number
- 087950
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.087950
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model of a Plate Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a plate printing press which was granted patent number 193097. The press bed was pulled by a continuous chain along a four-sided track, with stations for the operations of inking, wiping, supplying paper, and printing. This patent improved upon Milligan's patent of 1876 (Patent 180490). In 1878 Milligan steam presses were installed in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for printing tobacco stamps and the green backs of some bank notes, replacing hand presses. In 1889, as a result of protest from the Knights of Labor on behalf of copperplate printers, 19 steam presses were taken from the Bureau and replaced with 67 hand presses. After 1900, steam presses based on Milligan's pattern were gradually reintroduced to the Bureau. They were considered the Bureau's workhorses in the 20th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1877
- patent date
- 1877-07-17
- maker
- Milligan, James
- ID Number
- GA.89797.193097
- patent number
- 193097
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.193097
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model for Web Perfecting Rotary Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a web perfecting rotary press which was granted patent number 468. Flat forms of type were arranged around the surface of two type cylinders to form polygons. The web of paper was printed on both sides at this press, then sent to a drying machine still in the web, and finally cut into sheets. The inventor is named "Trench" on the patent drawings and "French" on the specification.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1837
- patent date
- 1837-11-20
- maker
- French, Thomas
- ID Number
- GA.11026
- catalog number
- GA*11026
- accession number
- 49064
- patent number
- 000468
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model for a Rotary Web Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a rotary press using tapered type on its type cylinders along with a special curved composing stick; the web of paper was cut and folded at the same machine, after printing. The invention was granted patent number 468.
- According to Stephen D. Tucker’s History of R. Hoe & Company, Wilkinson built a press along these lines for the New York Sun in 1842, but never succeeded in printing the paper at it.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1853
- patent date
- 1853-01-04
- maker
- Wilkinson, Jephtha A.
- ID Number
- GA.11019
- catalog number
- GA*11019
- accession number
- 48865
- patent number
- 009525
- catalog number
- GA*48865.009525
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model for a Rotary Perfecting Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for the first of a generation of fast web perfecting presses which was granted patent number 38200. On this press, unlike its successors, the paper was cut into sheets before being printed. According to Stephen D. Tucker’s History of R. Hoe & Company, the web cutting knife had been used years before on a Hoe press, but the concept had not been patented.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1863
- patent date
- 1863-04-14
- maker
- Bullock, William
- ID Number
- GA.11027
- catalog number
- GA*11027
- accession number
- 49064
- patent number
- 038200
- catalog number
- GA*49064.038200
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model for a Flatbed Cylinder Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for improvements in the printing press; the invention was granted patent number 4025. The patent details improvements in feed and delivery, in raising the cylinder, and in stopping the bed.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1845
- patent date
- 1845-05-01
- maker
- Hoe, Richard March
- ID Number
- GA.11016
- catalog number
- GA*11016
- patent number
- 004025
- accession number
- 48865
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model for Bed-and-Platen Printing Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a bed-and-platen power press with two friskets which carried paper under the platen alternately. The platen was drawn down by toggles against a fixed bed; it was to be powered by man, steam, horse, or water. The invention is considered an unnumbered patent.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1834
- patent date
- 1834-08-22
- maker
- Tufts, Otis
- ID Number
- GA.11025
- catalog number
- GA*11025
- accession number
- 48865
- patent number
- 8380X
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Patent Model for a Self-Inking Platen Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking platen printing press which was granted patent number 9925. Four or more platens rotated intermittently around a single axis. The bed was rocked, clamshell fashion, against each platen in turn. Sheets of paper were fed to grippers on the uppermost platen, printed when that platen turned to the vertical, and then dropped to a pile beneath the press when the platen went to the bottom position.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1853
- patent date
- 1853-08-09
- maker
- Northrup, Joel G.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.009925
- patent number
- 009925
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.009925
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Patent Model of a Platen Press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a self-inking platen jobbing press with a vertical bed and platen which was brought together by toggle levers. An inking cylinder sat beneath the bed, and a frisket frame was lifted up between impressions to receive sheets of paper. The invention was granted patent number 3716. This invention first appeared as Gilman's job press, and then from 1846 to 1873 as the Hoe Company's Patent Machine Card Press.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1844
- patent date
- 1844-08-23
- maker
- Gilman, Alonzo
- ID Number
- GA.89797.003716
- patent number
- 003716
- accession number
- 89797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.003716
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Hand printing press
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a lever press using a combination of course and fine screws, the first to lower the platen fast, and the second to produce greater power at the end of the pull. It also included inclined ways or tracks, so the bed was raised as it was drawn under the platen. The invention was granted patent number 23951.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1859
- patent date
- 1859-05-10
- maker
- Ruggles, Stephen P.
- ID Number
- GA.11020
- catalog number
- GA*11020
- patent number
- 023951
- accession number
- 48865
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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