Smithsonian Libraries

Want to Build Your Own Grist Mill? Oliver Evans Explains It All!

Have you ever daydreamed about the books you'd like to have with you in the event you might need to rebuild civilization all over again someday? If so, The Young Mill-Wright & Miller's Guide, written in 1795 by Oliver Evans (1755-1819), should be on your list. This book was instrumental in shaping America's industrial future, during a time when the frontier was located just along the west of the mid-Atlantic states. 

Born and raised in Delaware, young Evans taught himself mathematics and the fundamentals of engineering while learning the practical skills of wagon-making and textile manufacturing in the bustling city of Wilmington. His knack for coming up with creative solutions for improving mechanical processes would be helpful in any time period, but especially in the late 18th century when the American population was growing and expanding into new regions. 

As communities developed, residents needed mills to grind their grain into flour. However, the technical knowledge required to build and run mills was not easily acquired without spending years as an apprentice. Land-grant colleges to educate students in the subjects of engineering and agricultural science were not created until the 1860s, and the few American institutions of higher learning available in the 18th century were expensive, exclusive, and did not emphasize the study of the mechanical and practical arts.

The Young Mill-Wright & Miller's Guide explains the basic concepts of engineering, hydraulics, surveying, arithmetic, and business management so clearly that bright students with little more than an elementary education and a natural mechanical aptitude can understand them. The book is filled with instructions on how to select the best site for a mill, divert a mill-stream, construct the gears, pulleys, chutes and other necessary infrastructure, hire and train employees, negotiate with suppliers, and arrange for the transportation of the raw and finished products. Part 5 of Evans' book, subtitled "The practical mill-wright, containing instructions for building mills, with tables of their proportions suitable for all falls from three to thirty-six feet," was compiled from information supplied by Thomas Ellicott, a miller whose family business helped to develop the town of Ellicott City, Maryland and whose knowledge of a working mill operation provided a useful supplement to Evans' innovative ideas on ways to improve the traditional mechanical design of mills.   

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries has several early and modern reprint editions of The Young Mill-Wright & Miller's Guide in its collections, including the first (1795) edition. Of particular interest are two copies of the 1807 edition from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology. The 1807 edition has a slightly modified title, The Young Mill-Wright's & Miller's Guide, with the imprint "Octoraro [i.e. Octorara]: Printed by Francis Bailey." Bailey was the official printer of the state of Pennsylvania, and he ran printing shops in both Philadelphia and in his home town of Octorara in Lancaster county. There are two different issues of the 1807 edition, which differ slightly in their type-setting (one notable difference is that the variant issue has the phrase "[Price four dollars bound.]" appearing on its title page). The Dibner Library has a copy of each issue.

The Dibner copy of the standard issue is well-used and missing some of its plates. The book formerly belonged to a family of millers named Switzer, whose ancestors settled in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Two handwritten inscriptions on the preliminary pages suggest that this text was a prized guide for running the family business: 1. "Calvin Switzer, January 5th, [18...], price 550 cents", and 2. "Used by gr. gr. father David Switzer, in the operation of his water-power mill in Madison County, Virginia, gift of Miss Edna Switzer, October 25, 1940."

The Dibner copy of the variant issue, received from the U.S. Patent Office Library, also has an intriguing provenance. The volume is inscribed on the front free endpaper by its former owner: "Department of State Patent Office, 30th Dec. 1808, William Thornton." Thornton (1759-1828) had a many-faceted career as a physician, painter, inventor, and architect. He won the national competition to design the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C., and held the honorary title of Architect of the Capitol. Not content with that achievement, Thornton went on to serve as the first superintendent of the United States Patent Office, an agency that was originally part of the United States Department of State, as indicated by the inscription. Thornton seems to have relied upon this copy of The Young Mill-Wright & Miller's Guide to guide his thinking in a patent dispute in 1827 with a man named Michael Withers. Withers claimed the right to a licensing fee from users of a milling device called a "winged gudgeon," although he was apparently not the inventor of the device. When Thornton challenged the validity of this patent claim, Withers sued Thornton for libel. The Dibner Library copy contains a short newspaper article captioned "To the proprietors of mills throughout the United States" which warns mill owners not to pay royalties to Withers. The article, clipped from an unidentified 19th-century newspaper with the dateline "City of Washington, 7th April, 1827," was quite possibly pasted in the volume by Thornton himself.—Diane Shaw

Illustration captions:

1. Title page for the variant issue of the 1807 Octoraro, Pennsylvania edition of The young mill-wright's and miller's guide, formerly owned by William Thornton. TS2145.E85 1807 c. 2 Dibner Library

2. Plate from the 1807 variant issue, with a detailed diagram showing the inner workings of a grist mill. You can visually track the route taken by the grain from its receipt in raw form at the lower right corner, through the grinding process, to the end when the ground meal is poured into barrels and loaded onto a waiting ship in the lower left corner. 

3. Another plate from the 1807 variant issue, with a cross-section of the wheel mechanism. The jaunty fish-shaped weathervane at the top of the building is a particularly whimsical touch.

4. Handwitten inscription of William Thornton, appearing on the front free endpaper of the 1807 variant issue. 

Calendar Girl: Kate Greenaway's Almanacs

This sweet group of pocket-sized almanacs by British children's book illustrator Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) were issued between 1884 and 1895. Greenaway's scenes of beautifully-dressed children frolicking in the countryside were popular during the late Victorian period, and her images still exert a strong nostalgic charm. These books also display the talents of Edmund Evans, one of the finest engravers and color printers of the 19th century. This collection of Greenaway's almanacs is housed in the Bradley Room of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library.—Diane Shaw

Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day!!!

Did you know that Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day is celebrated every year on the last Monday of the month of January?

Here at the Libraries we have many reasons to appreciate bubble wrap, as evidenced by these photos.

Rare-book librarians LOVE bubble-wrap.

In 2003 and 2006 a total of approximately 10,000 volumes were packed and transported from other rare-book locations into the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, the Libraries’ new rare-book room in the National Museum of Natural History. Each and every book, including some very large ones, was wrapped in bubble-wrap and packed with others in a box with yet more bubble-wrap. This protected fragile bindings, gilt-decorated spines, and other physical aspects of the volumes from bumps and abrasions and from sudden changes in environmental conditions during the move.

But now what do we do with all of it ?!?—Leslie Overstreet

America's Gold Mine

Today, in 1848, gold was discovered in California at Sutter's Mill. 

The Libraries has quite a few titles which chronicle the rise and fall of John Augustus Sutter. 

But while perusing the Libraries' fabulous Galaxy of Images, some other gold-related items caught my eye, including this wonderful example from the trade literature collection, Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co., ca. 1909, America's Gold Mine.

There is also the fabulous 16th century item on metallurgy and mining, from the Dibner Library, Georgii Agricolae De re metallica libri xii, qvibu officia,instrumenta, machinae, ac omnnia deniq[ue] ad metalicam spectantia, non modo lucluentissime describuntur, sed & per effigies, sius locis insertas, aduenctis latinis, germanicisq[ue] appelationibus ita ob oculos ponuntur, et clarius tradi non possint. Evisdem De aaimantibvs svbterraneis liber, ab autore recognitus: cum indicibus deuersis quicqiuid in opere tractatum est pulchré demonstrantibus, Basileae, H. Frobenivm et Nic. Episcopivm, 1561.

Many more images are also available from this publication.

Pure gold.—Elizabeth Periale

2011 Penick Resident Scholar Program

Patrick Henry by George Bagby Matthews

The Libraries announces a new fellowship founded by a bequest of Margaret P. Nuttle. The Margaret Henry Dabney Penick Resident Scholar Program supports scholarly research into the legacy of Patrick Henry and his political circle, the early political history of Virginia, the history of the American Revolution, founding era ideas and policy-making, as well as science, technology, and culture in colonial America and the Early National Period.

The stipend for this long-term fellowship is $45,000 for nine consecutive months. Senior scholars are particularly encouraged to apply, however, applicants in their post-doctoral phase or, with outstanding achievements in their pre-doctoral phase may be also considered for the fellowship. Fellows are expected to give at least one public lecture during the tenure of the fellowship as well as to produce a publishable manuscript by the end of the fellowship period. Fellows are also asked to cooperate with the library administration in planning scholarly programs.

The Libraries offers its fellows the rich holdings of its research collections, especially at the National Museum American History Library, the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, American Art / Portrait Gallery Library, and the American Civilization Collection at the National Museum of the American Indian. The Libraries also provides guidance and contact information to relevant historical collections in the Washington D.C. area, especially regarding the holdings of Patrick Henry materials and resources of the pre-American Revolution and the colonial era.

The deadline for applications to the 2011 Penick Resident Scholar Program is April 1st. Visit our website for application materials and further information or e-mail SILResidentScholars@si.edu.—Liz O'Brien

January 15th is Hat Day

Journal des dames et des modes, 1914

Today would be a good day to choose to don a fabulous hat, tam, sombrero, turban, cappello, chapeau . . . the possibilities are endless.—Elizabeth Periale

2011 Resident Scholar Applications

Johannes Hevelius, Machinae Coelestis Pars Prior [and Posterior] [Celestial machines, or astronomical instruments], 1673-79, Four male figures (including Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, and possibly Ptolemy and Aristotle) contemplate a celestial globe; allegorical figures surround them

The Libraries will award grants to Dibner Library Resident Scholars and Baird Society Resident Scholars in the 2011 academic year. These competitive short-term grants are offered for one to six months to historians, librarians and bibliographers, as well as predoctoral and postdoctoral students, with an approved research project. The scholars will complete their residencies at one or more of the Libraries’ twenty branches for various lengths of time throughout the year.

Dibner Library Resident Scholars will do research in the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology in the National Museum of American History. The Dibner Library specializes in the physical sciences and technology, and holds more than 25,000 rare books and 10,000 manuscripts covering a wide variety of subject areas and time periods, particularly in mathematics, astronomy, classical and Renaissance natural philosophy, theoretical physics, experimental physics, engineering and scientific apparatus and instruments. The collections range from early printed works of ancient Greek and medieval scholars through the Renaissance and Early Modern eras up through the 19th century. There are significant works by Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Galileo, Descartes, Newton and many others. This award is supported by The Dibner Fund.

Baird Society Resident Scholars will do research in other Libraries’ special collections located in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Included are 19th- and early 20th-century World’s Fairs printed materials; manufacturers’ commercial trade catalogs, numbering more than 300,000 pieces and representing 30,000 companies from the 1840s to the present; natural-history rare books; the air-and-space history special collection for the study of ballooning, rocketry and aviation from the late-18th to the early-20th centuries; James Smithson’s library; and the European and American decorative arts, architecture and design special collection, which spans the 18th to the 20th centuries. This award is supported by the Smithsonian Libraries Spencer Baird Society.

The deadline for applications to the 2011 resident scholar programs is April 1st. Visit our website for application materials and further information or e-mail SILResidentScholars@si.edu.—Liz O'Brien

We are #1!

The blog, OnlineCourses.org ranked the Libraries' online special collections #1!

They like us, they really like us . . .

The Libraries does house many special collections, which we try to highlight on this blog. Rare and unique items are not only held and preserved by the Libraries, but may be viewed by the public by appointment. 

Treasures at your fingertips . . . —Elizabeth Periale

Robert Dale Owen, Hints on public architecture . . . , 1849, Smithsonian Institution, from the North East, Smithsonian Castle Building.

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January is Eye Care Month

Johannes Kepler, Ad Vitellionem paralipomena . . ., 1604, Medical Illustrations of Human Eye

 

—Elizabeth Periale

Tomb of King Tut finally Opened! Craze for All Things Egyptian Begins!

In November of 1922, after eight long years, British archaeologist Howard Carter finally succeeded in finding the 3,000 year old tomb of King Tutankhamen. It took more than a year of careful excavation through multiple doorways, chambers, and staircases before they were able to approach the sarcophagus that held King Tut’s remains.

In the years before and after the initial discovery of the tomb, every step of the project was followed closely by the press; there was great interest among the scientific world and among the general public. There was an air of anticipation, a “wait and see” attitude and much speculation about the enormity of the find and what treasures, if any, would be discovered.

The discovery of King Tut’s Tomb was one of the greatest archaeological finds ever uncovered, and as the unbelievably precious and beautiful artifacts were brought out, a craze for anything Egyptian captured the public imagination.

There have been previous "Egyptian Revivals" over the centuries, starting in ancient Rome and continuing as European travelers brought back objects and memories of their journeys along the Nile.

Napoleon's campaigns into Egypt in 1798-1799 produced the most widespread creation of Egyptian Revival styles since ancient times. Napoleon brought with him an army of scholars and artists who documented everything they saw there. One of them, Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, wrote the illustrated Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte in 1802, and between the years 1809 and 1828 produced the 22 volume Description de l'Egypte. This treatise and the numerous detailed drawings it contained had a tremendous influence on scholars and artists and fired up the imagination of the public, providing inspiration for the nineteenth century Egyptian Revival movement. The discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen sparked a whole new (20th century) wave of Egyptian Revival design in many areas of popular culture—print advertising, product packaging, jewelry and clothing, and architecture.—Elizabeth Broman 

Additional images may be viewed on the Libraries' flickr site.

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