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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Corset and Whalebone Scrimshaw Busk
- Description
- For much of the 19th century, ladies’ fashion required very small waists. The most common way to achieve this was to wear a tightly laced corset, which could be adjusted according to the specific dress it accompanied. Like this example, many corsets were handmade to fit an individual, although they were also available in shops.
- One of the most intimate pieces of scrimshaw a whaleman could produce was a bone or baleen busk, or corset stiffener. These were carved and given to a crewman’s loved one, who then inserted it into a matching sleeve on her corset as a unique memento of her beloved’s feelings.
- Each of these busks has a cityscape etched into one side. The other side of one has eight pictures, topped by a portrait of a beautiful young woman. The other has a plaintive love poem on the back.
- date made
- mid-1800s
- collected
- 1951-06-29
- fashion
- 19th century
- ID Number
- TR.388604
- catalog number
- TR*388604
- accession number
- 182022
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Pages
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- Ecology 421
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- On the Water exhibit 35
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- Contemporary United States 19
- Clothing and dress 17
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- mining lamp 319
- lamp, safety, mining 125
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- lamp, cap, miner's 34
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- Models 22
- Patents 21
- lamp, carbide, cap, mining 17
- lamp, oil, cap, miner's 15
- Swrimshaws 13
- helmet, mining 11
- cap, mining 8
- lamp, cap, mining 7
- lamp, hand, oil wick type, miner's 6
- lamp, mining 5
- Harpoons 4
- Ivory (tooth component) 4
- hat, miner's 4
- Dice 3
- Lamp, Mining 3
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- Work and Industry: Mining 355
- Mining Lamps 301
- National Museum of American History 55
- On the Water 53
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- Mining Helmets 36
- On the Water exhibit 35
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- Work and Industry: Fisheries 12
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