Recently while searching for furniture catalogs in the Trade Literature Collection, I came across something very unexpected. The Smithsonian Institution was mentioned in one of the catalogs.
Author: Alexia MacClain
The big Thanksgiving meal is fast approaching and for many that means a well-dressed table, perhaps with heirloom china. What would your dinner table have looked like for a nice meal or tea over a hundred years ago, maybe back when Great-great Aunt Agnes first started filling her china cabinet? The Trade Literature Collection includes catalogs illustrating dinnerware, glassware, cutlery, and cooking utensils which can give us a glimpse into the past. One of these catalogs is from the Fall and Winter seasons of 1899-1900.
It’s October and Halloween is just around the corner. So I set out to find something creepy in the Trade Literature Collection. I already knew there are a lot of catalogs for undertakers’ supplies so I decided to start there.
Would it surprise you to know that air mattresses existed in the nineteenth century? That thought never occurred to me until I came across this trade catalog from 1896 advertising the “Perfection” Air Mattress.
What would it look like to engage in a deep sea adventure in the early 20th century? The Trade Literature Collection at the National Museum of American History Library includes catalogs illustrating diving apparatus and equipment from right around that era.
This post was written by Emily Daniel, Rebecca Durgin, and Shayla Wheat, graduate students in the Smithsonian-Mason History of Decorative Arts Masters Program. Emily, Rebecca, and Shayla were also Graduate Research Assistants in 2015-2016 at the National Museum of American History Library.
In anticipation of the thirty-first modern Olympic Games being held in Rio de Janeiro starting this week, here is a look at the type of equipment that may have been used at the first modern Olympic Games 120 years ago.
This post was written by Rebecca Durgin and Shayla Wheat, graduate students in the Smithsonian-Mason History of Decorative Arts Masters Program. Rebecca and Shayla were also Graduate Research Assistants in 2015-2016 at the National Museum of American History Library.
Play ball! With baseball season underway across the United States, let’s take a look at early baseball equipment featured in a catalog from the Trade Literature Collection at the National Museum of American History Library. The spring and summer 1916 A. G. Spalding & Bros. catalog, Spalding, A Safe Decision Catalogue No. 1610, features a wide variety of baseball equipment that includes balls, bats, gloves and mitts, and bases for marking the diamond. Uniforms for players as well as team captains and managers were produced in multiple colors to match the different teams’ logos and colors.