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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Patent Model of a Pantograph
- Description (Brief)
- This patent model demonstrates an invention for a pantograph which was granted patent number 222798. The patent details the arrangement of scales and adjustment devices on a pantograph, particularly intended for use by tailors and dressmakers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1879
- patent date
- 1879-12-23
- maker
- Schnoor, John J. F.
- ID Number
- GA.89797.222798
- patent number
- 222798
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- GA*89797.222798
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
