Peter C. Welsh 



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Patent documents from our Natio)!' s early years provide a rich 

 field of exploration for the cultural historian. 



United States patents of the period 1790-1870 provide a re- 

 markable cross section of American ingenuity . The drawings — 

 many of the early ones are in color — illustrate the changing 

 contemporary interests. 



Now in the National Archives, these patents are a unique 

 source of information standing somewhere between objects and 

 manuscripts . As research materials, they provide a rich field of 

 exploration for the cultural historian. 



Here, the scope of this largely untapped source of social history 

 is suggested, and a sampling of it is given. 



The Author: Peter Welsh is curator of the Growth of the 

 United States in the Smithsonian Institution' s M.useum of 

 History and Technology. 



THE EXTENSIVE FILES of the U.S. Patent Office con- 

 firm the fact that Americans early in the 1 9th cen- 

 tury made rapid strides toward mechanization and 

 technical proficiency. In 1794 astute critics such as 

 Thomas Cooper found us "ingenious in the invention, 

 and prompt and accurate in the execution of mecha- 

 nism and workmanship." ' Others wrote, often at 

 length, about our locomotives and steamboats and of 

 an exuberant democratic society preoccupied with 



' Thomas Cooper, Some Injormation Reipecling America (London, 

 1794), p. 65. 



speed and comfort. Inventors, themselves caught up 

 in the general fervor of democratic faith, viewed their 

 work as "essentially beneficial to mankind." - 



Everywhere Americans displayed a predilection for 

 tinkering, a trait that manifested itself as clearly in 

 bizarre contrivances for the home as in labor-saving 

 devices for the farm and factory. From the cotton gin 

 to the machine tool, from the railroad to the automatic 

 mill, the Nation's urge to improve is dramatically 



- Benjamin Dearborn announced this worthy sentiment in 

 his patent specification of April 30, 1799. 



110 



BULLETIN 24 1 : CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



