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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Miner's Cap Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- This is a copper oil-wick cap lamp made by J&A McDougall of Pittston, Pennsylvania likely in the latter half of the 20th century. The oil-wick cap lamp was first invented in Scotland in 1850 and in use until the 1920’s. The font contained a mix of fat and oil for fuel, and a wick was inserted into the spout. The resulting flame was much brighter and more efficient than the candles it replaced. The hook enabled the lamp to be worn on a cap, or hooked onto any other suitable location.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- ID Number
- AG.059073
- catalog number
- 059073
- accession number
- 014851
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Oil-Wick Lamp Patent Model
- Description (Brief)
- This oil-wick lamp is a patent model constructed by Edward Gough, of Allentown, Pennsylvania that received patent number 229,117 on June 22, 1880. In his patent filing, Gough claimed as his invention “an improvement in lamps with the combination of a cast-metal body or can with a neck, provided with studs, of the cast metal cover, having notches and interior annular groove” constructed to secure the top to the lamp. The chain is usually attached to the top so it wouldn’t get separated from its lamp.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- patent date
- 1880-06-22
- patentee
- Gough, Edward
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-9742
- accession number
- 088881
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-9742
- patent number
- 229117
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Oil-Wick Miner’s Lamp Patent Model
- Description (Brief)
- This oil-wick lamp is a patent model constructed by Henry F. Pearce of Hyde Park, Pennsylvania that received patent number 258,803 on May 30, 1882. Pearce claimed as his invention “a cap for a miner's lamp having a lining arranged to form a space and having the annularly-located perforations, whereby none of the perforations in the lining directly communicate with the vent in the cap” to prevent the escape of the oil through the vent and the closing of the vent by the gumming of oil or sediment.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- patent date
- 1882-05-30
- patentee
- Pearce, Henry F.
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-9746
- accession number
- 088881
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-9746
- patent number
- 258802
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Oil-Wick Miner’s Lamp Patent Model
- Description (Brief)
- This oil-wick lamp is a patent model constructed by John B. Deeds and William Mack of Terre Haute, Indiana that received patent number 281,846 on July 24, 1883. Deeds and Mack developed a lamp with an “oil tight lid.” The invention is described as “having its top or opening made slightly flaring, in combination with the hinged lid and the supplemental lid or disk with a packing of cork between them, and having holes therein opposite to each other, which communicate with a corresponding opening in the cork for the purpose of ventilation.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- patent date
- 1883-07-04
- patentee
- Deeds, John B.
- Mack, William
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-9748
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-9748
- accession number
- 88881
- patent number
- 281846
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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