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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Page 1 of 34
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Zebras
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1974-11
- photographer
- Regan, Ken
- ID Number
- 2014.0112.483
- catalog number
- 2014.0112.483
- accession number
- 2014.0112
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Masai Mara
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1974-11
- photographer
- Regan, Ken
- ID Number
- 2014.0112.484
- catalog number
- 2014.0112.484
- accession number
- 2014.0112
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Masai Mara
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1974-11
- photographer
- Regan, Ken
- ID Number
- 2014.0112.487
- catalog number
- 2014.0112.487
- accession number
- 2014.0112
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
- Location
- Currently not on view
- photographer
- Regan, Ken
- ID Number
- 2014.0112.491
- catalog number
- 2014.0112.491
- accession number
- 2014.0112
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Zaire River
- Location
- Currently not on view
- photographer
- Regan, Ken
- ID Number
- 2014.0112.527
- catalog number
- 2014.0112.527
- accession number
- 2014.0112
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Bullard Hard Boiled Miner’s Helmet
- Description (Brief)
- This Hard Boiled brand miner’s helmet was made by the E.D. Bullard Company of San Francisco, California after 1919. A leather and metal lamp bracket is mounted onto the front of the helmet that likely would have held an electric lamp. The rear of the helmet has a metal cord holder. Bullard was one of the first producers of protective hard hats, basing their original design off of the “doughboy” helmets worn by World War I soldiers. The helmet was made of canvas, glue, and black paint, and given the trademarked name “Hard Boiled” because of the steam used in the manufacturing process.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-8782C
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-8782C
- accession number
- 265669
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Miner’s Cap
- Description (Brief)
- The miner’s cap is made of canvas with a metal and cardboard lamp bracket attached to the front. The lamp bracket likely would have held an oil-wick cap lamp. The small paper label attached to the bracket reads MINING AND / METALLURGY DEPT. / LAFAYETTE COLLEGE / EASTON, PA." The National Museum of American History received many objects in its mining and metallurgy collection from Lafayette College.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-8783
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-8783
- accession number
- 265669
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Coal King Miner’s Helmet
- Description (Brief)
- This black Coal King brand miner’s helmet was made during the first half of the 20th century by the T.R. Jones Company of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The helmet is made of re-enforced leather, with a leather and metal lamp bracket in the front and a leather cord holder in the rear. The helmet’s cord holder keeps the cable out of the miner’s way, routing it behind the miner. The cord holder points to this helmet being used in conjunction with an electric lamp.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-9575A
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-9575A
- accession number
- 282791
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Miner’s Cap
- Description (Brief)
- This canvas miner’s cap was manufactured by Thomas Lloyd & Sons of Houtzdale, Pennsylvania. The cap has a leather brim with a leather and metal lamp bracket. The bracket likely held either a carbide lamp or an oil-wick cap lamp. Before head protection became mandatory in industrial workplaces, miner’s caps served as a way to mount their lamps.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-9576A
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-9576A
- accession number
- 282791
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Wicker Mining Helmet
- Description (Brief)
- This wicker mining helmet was used in India. The prevalence of bamboo and rattan in India may be the reason this helmet was made of wicker instead of the plastic or leather helmets that were prevalent in the United States. The wicker mining helmet has a metal lamp bracket woven into the front of the helmet.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MI-1099.3
- catalog number
- MHI-MI-1099.3
- accession number
- 1978.0288
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Mining Helmet
- Description (Brief)
- This black plastic mining helmet has a leather and metal lamp bracket attached to the front of the helmet. The lamp bracket reads: "'SAFETY' / PAT'D DEC. 1. 1915/NO. 1563951." The top of the hat has seven venting holes for heat dissipation. This helmet has no interior headband or suspension device that is usually found in safety helmets. The helmet’s label reads: "Miner's SAFETY HELMET / HAZlAN STEVENS / 418 EAST MONROE / PITTSBURO, KANSAS."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MI-1073 [dup1]
- catalog number
- MHI-MI-1072
- accession number
- 310657
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
MSA Comfo-Cap Miner’s Helmet
- Description (Brief)
- This plastic Comfo-Cap brand miner’s helmet was manufactured by the Mine Safety Appliance Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 20th century. The MSA Company first registered their trademark for the Comfo-Cap in 1935 and continues to produce the helmet into the 21st century. The front of the helmet has a bracket for either a carbide mining lamp or electric lamp. This mining helmet has a low profile to avoid bumps, hard plastic to absorb impact, and its flat front served as an excellent mount for mining lights.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-8181B
- accession number
- 239148
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-8181B
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Flexo Band Cool Cap Miner’s Cap
- Description (Brief)
- This Flexo Band Cool Cap miner’s cap was distributed by the Portable Lamp & Equipment Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 20th century. The cap is made of reinforced leather with a dome comprised of upstanding ribs allowing for protection and ventilation. A leather and metal lamp bracket is attached to the front of the cap. The bracket could have held an oil-wick lamp or a carbide lamp.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-8181C
- accession number
- 239148
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-8181C
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Miner’s Cap and Carbide Lamp
- Description (Brief)
- This miner’s hat is made of canvas, with a leather brim and metal lamp bracket attached to the front of the cap. A miner’s carbide lamp is mounted onto the bracket. This type of hat and lamp would have been used together from around 1900 until the 1930s. Carbide lamps consisted of two chambers, an upper chamber holding water and a lower chamber holding calcium carbide. Acetylene gas is produced when water from the lamp's upper level encounters the calcium carbide stored in the base via a dripping mechanism. The gas is funneled to the burner, where it is lit by a match or a built-in striker. Miner safety became a big issue during the early 20th century, when mining accidents hit an all-time high. Congress established the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1910 to improve miner safety, and miner’s hats began to turn to helmets, and electric lamps replaced the open flame of carbide and oil-wick lamps.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- ID Number
- AG.MHI-MN-8146
- accession number
- 239148
- catalog number
- MHI-MN-8146
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Foul Weather Jacket
- maker
- Guy Cotten
- ID Number
- 2007.0178.09
- catalog number
- 2007.0178.09
- accession number
- 2007.0178
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Rain Pants
- maker
- Dutch Harbor Gear
- ID Number
- 2007.0178.10
- catalog number
- 2007.0178.10
- accession number
- 2007.0178
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Fisherman’s Boots
- Description
- Deck hands working aboard most commercial fishing vessels require protective clothing from head to toe. Non-slip, waterproof footwear is essential, and on the Alaska Ocean factory trawler, the deck hands, as well as the people who work in the factory, wear “Xtratuf” boots. Manufactured in the United States, these neoprene boots are made for “severe fishing, farm, and work conditions.” This pair was worn by a deck hand aboard the Alaska Ocean in summer of 2007.
- date made
- 2007
- 2006-2007
- Associated Date
- 2007
- maker
- Norcross Safety Products, L. L. C.
- ID Number
- 2007.0178.01
- accession number
- 2007.0178
- catalog number
- 2007.0178
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Ship Model, Containership Emma Mærsk
- Description
- At launching in 2006, the Emma Mærsk was the world’s largest containership, a distinction held until her seven sister ships Estelle, Ebba, Edith, Eleonora, Elly, Evelyn, and Eugen Mærsk, were launched in 2007–08. Built at the Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark, the ships are owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group, the world’s largest global shipping company, whose beginnings date to 1904. Emma Mærsk is named for the late wife of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, the son of the company’s founder, who served as the CEO from 1965 to 1993 and on its board until 2003.
- Containers are standardized, reinforced steel boxes that can be packed with a wide array of products and materials and transported on ships, trains, and trucks. Loaded into the vast holds and onto the massive decks of containerships, they can be used time and again to carry goods between manufacturing centers and consumer markets around the world.
- As globalized commerce expanded in the last half of the 20th century and into the first years of the 21st, ocean carriers grew as well. The first containerships in the 1950s were adapted freighters, the largest of which could carry about 800—1,000 containers. The standard designation for containers is teus—twenty-equivalent-units—or containers measuring either 20 or 40 feet in length. Ships specially constructed in the 1970s to carry containers in cellular sections of the hold could carry between 1,000 and 2,500 teus.
- The third generation ships were built to the maximum size that could be accommodated by the Panama Canal, an important throughway on global shipping routes. Built in the 1980s, these ships, called Panamax vessels, could carry between three and four thousand teus. Subsequent generations—the Post Panamax vessels of the 1990s (4,000–5,000 teus) and the Post Panamax Plus ships built between 2000 and 2005 (5,000–8,000 teus)—are too large to travel through the Panama Canal. With the increasing volume of global shipping during this period, other ocean routes became more important, especially those connecting Asian ports with the U.S. West Coast. However, as containerships increased in size, the number of ports worldwide that could accommodate them also decreased.
- The Emma Mærsk represents the sixth generation of containership, also called the New Panamax class, because it will be able to travel through the new Panama Canal after it opens around 2014. The vessel, with a capacity of 11,000 teus, is the first to be launched in Maersk’s PS-class. The ship has a waste heat recovery system, which uses exhaust gasses to generate some of the electricity needed aboard the vessel. Its hull is also covered with silicone-based paint, which improves fuel efficiency. The Emma Mærsk entered service on the Europe to Asia route in 2006.
- date made
- 2007
- ship launched
- 2006
- late wife of founder and CEO of the company
- Maersk, Emma
- ship's namesake
- Maersk, Emma
- built the ship
- Odense Steel Shipyard
- maker
- Modelos Navales Riera, S.L.
- ID Number
- 2008.0039.01
- catalog number
- 2008.0039.01
- accession number
- 2008.0039
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
-
Fisherman’s Hard Hat
- Description
- The weather deck on a factory trawler like the Alaska Ocean can be a dangerous place, especially when the huge net is being launched or hauled aboard. While mechanical winches do the heavy lifting, deck hands have to be present during such operations to attach or change cables, to secure or launch the trawl doors, to open the cod end of the net into the fish bins in the hold, and to accomplish a range of other tasks accurately and efficiently. To protect themselves while working on the deck, fishermen wear hard hats, earplugs, and other gear.
- This hard hat was worn by Alaska Ocean deck hand Matt Prebezac in 2007. Like other fishermen aboard, he customized the standard white hard hat so there would be no confusion over which hat to grab when the call came to report to the deck. Using a black permanent marker, he wrote the words “Rock Star” on the back of the hat. This ensured it wouldn’t be mistaken for his buddy Ben Boyok’s hat, which was adorned with the profile of a hawkeye, the team mascot of the University of Iowa, in Ben’s home state. Throughout the 2007 season, the Rock Star and the Iowa hawkeye, with four other deck hands, a lead fisherman, and a deck officer, worked 12-hour shifts in two teams.
- date made
- 2007
- Associated Date
- 2007
- used
- Prebezac, Matt
- maker
- Bullard
- ID Number
- 2007.0178.02
- catalog number
- 2007.0178.02
- accession number
- 2007.0178
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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Button, Fisher Poets Gathering
- Description
- Each February since 1998, poets, musicians, and tellers of tall tales descend upon Astoria, Oregon, for the Fisher Poets Gathering, a weekend filled with stories, songs, camaraderie, and reverence for the fishing way of life. Inspired by the National Cowboy Poetry Festival in Elko, Nevada, a group of poets and teachers, all tied in some way to the commercial fishing industry, founded the event. The gathering has grown every year, attracting fisher poets from California to Cape Cod, and Alaska to Florida. It has also been designated as a Local Legacies Project by the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center. This button is from the 2005 Fisher Poets Gathering, held at the Wet Dog Café on the Astoria waterfront.
- People have created stories, songs, and poems about their working lives for millennia, and American folklore is awash in tales of people working the water. Fishermen’s narratives often reveal a profound sensory awareness, reflecting their close relationship with the natural world. Likewise, the inherent dangers of fishing typically inspire stories and poems featuring strong spiritual elements. Although the aesthetic and spiritual sophistication of fishermen’s narratives often come as a surprise to outsiders, they are celebrated during performances at the Fisher Poets Gathering.
- Astoria, established near the mouth of the Columbia River, was the hub of commercial salmon fishing in the 19th and early 20th centuries. With thousands of resident fishermen and scores of canneries lining the river, the town’s identity was wrapped up in the salmon industry. As salmon populations in the river declined, many in the industry relocated, at least seasonally, to Alaska. The Fisher Poets Gathering honors the history of Pacific Coast fishing, as well as the men and women who still live the fishing life. With odes to herring scales, dirges about those lost at sea, and tales of fishers remarkably attuned to nature, the tradition of fisher poets continues to thrive in Astoria.
- Date made
- 2005
- American Folklife Center designated the Fisher Poets Gathering as a Local Legacies Project
- Library of Congress
- ID Number
- 2005.0149.03
- catalog number
- 2005.0149.03
- accession number
- 2005.0149
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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