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| Item | Title | Type | Subject | Creator | Publisher | Date | Place | Address | Description | |
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| 14608 | Robert Smallidge's Hand Made Gun |
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| 7124 | Union Station |
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| 7179 | Montelle D. Gott's Buildings at the Outer Pool on Great Gott Island |
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| 7350 | Southwest Harbor Parking Ticket Form Used by Officer Woodrow Wilson Herrick |
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| 13228 | Cranberry Isles Life Saving Station |
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| "The first Coast Guard presence in the Mt. Desert Island area was a Life Saving Station located on Little Cranberry Island, established by an act of congress on June 18th, 1878. In 1937, the Southwest Harbor complex was created and used as a lighthouse depot by the U.S. Light House Service. By 1945, the Coast Guard Station on Little Cranberry Island was moved to the facility in Southwest Harbor.” - “Sector Field Office (SFO) Southwest Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Maine – History,” United States Coast Guard site, 06/28/13, Accessed online 07/20/10; http://www.uscg.mil/d1/sfoSouthwestHarbor/history.asp. | 
Description: "The first Coast Guard presence in the Mt. Desert Island area was a Life Saving Station located on Little Cranberry Island, established by an act of congress on June 18th, 1878. In 1937, the Southwest Harbor complex was created and used as a lighthouse depot by the U.S. Light House Service. By 1945, the Coast Guard Station on Little Cranberry Island was moved to the facility in Southwest Harbor.” - “Sector Field Office (SFO) Southwest Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Maine – History,” United States Coast Guard site, 06/28/13, Accessed online 07/20/10; http://www.uscg.mil/d1/sfoSouthwestHarbor/history.asp. [show more] | |||
| 15332 | Vasculum |
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| A vasculum or a botanical box is a stiff container used by botanists to keep field samples viable for transportation. The main purpose of the valsculum is to transport plants without crushing them and by maintaining a cool, humid environment. Vascula are cylinders typically made from tinned and sometimes lacquered iron, though wooden examples are known. The box was carried horizontally on a strap so that plant specimens lie flat and lined with moistened cloth.[1] Traditionally, British and American vascula were somewhat flat and valise-like with a single room, while continental examples were more cylindrical and often longer, sometimes with two separate compartments.[2] Access to the interior is through one (sometimes two) large lids in the side, allowing plants to be put in and taken out without bending or distorting them unnecessarily. This is particularly important with wildflowers, which are often fragile. Some early 20th century specimen are made from sheet aluminium rather than tin, but otherwise follow the 19th century pattern. The exterior is usually left rough, or lacquered green. This item's second image is a painting by Hermann Kern Der Botaniker depicting the artist's view of a botanist with a vasculum. | 
Description: A vasculum or a botanical box is a stiff container used by botanists to keep field samples viable for transportation. The main purpose of the valsculum is to transport plants without crushing them and by maintaining a cool, humid environment. Vascula are cylinders typically made from tinned and sometimes lacquered iron, though wooden examples are known. The box was carried horizontally on a strap so that plant specimens lie flat and lined with moistened cloth.[1] Traditionally, British and American vascula were somewhat flat and valise-like with a single room, while continental examples were more cylindrical and often longer, sometimes with two separate compartments.[2] Access to the interior is through one (sometimes two) large lids in the side, allowing plants to be put in and taken out without bending or distorting them unnecessarily. This is particularly important with wildflowers, which are often fragile. Some early 20th century specimen are made from sheet aluminium rather than tin, but otherwise follow the 19th century pattern. The exterior is usually left rough, or lacquered green. This item's second image is a painting by Hermann Kern Der Botaniker depicting the artist's view of a botanist with a vasculum. [show more] | |||||
| 15280 | Try House at Try House Point, Bernard |
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| "It is a little known fact that Mount Desert Island men participated in one of America's earliest and most storied industries - whaling. In 1776 Benjamin Benson, great grandfather of Ralph Benson of Bernard, sailed out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, in the whaling vessel which he captained, He finally dropped anchor at Bass Harbor, which he selected as a base for his operations. He built a try house on a point of land at the mouth of the harbor and used his ship and crew for hunting whales in the surrounding waters, particularly near Mt. Desert Rock. The try house, a small frame structure, stood on the point behind the present home of Farrell Davisson almost directly across the harbor from the Underwood sardine plant until it was finally demolished about 1910. By the time the building was torn down the equipment used in the rendering process was gone. However, Ralph Benson owns the muzzle-loading gun for shooting, the harpoon and a whale oil lamp. The grapnel used for hauling the whale behind the ship is also in Bernard. Whalebone, which was discarded during the oil extracting process, is still occasionally dug up from the sand during, excavations along the shore of the harbor. The whale was located by the ship. When one was found, a part of the crew put out in a small boat and carefully rowed as near the prey as possible. The whale was shot with a harpoon from the muzzle-loading gun. If the carcass sank, it was raised with a four-hook grapnel weighing about 200 pounds and towed by the ship to the rendering plant. The several inch thick layer of blubber under the skin was the only part of the whale used here. The blubber was stripped off and placed in huge iron kettles to cook over a slow fire. The round-bottomed kettles, holding about 150 gallons each, were some four and a half feet in diameter at the top. A flat lip encircling the rim was supported on a brick fireplace holding the kettle off the fire beneath. The oil thus rendered was used as the fuel in whale oil lamps, which were the first development for home lighting after candles. The little lamp in Mr. Benson's possession was part of the stock of his grandfather's general store located on the same site as Benson's present wharf. The clear glass base, which held the fuel, is about eight inches across the bottom and tapering to the top. The opening is capped with metal on which there are two small spouts through which the wicks were run. There was no chimney to the lamp. The whale oil trying industry lasted until about 1860 or 1870 when the discovery and development of petroleum wrote a finis to it. Whales, some of them 80 feet in length, are still seen in the waters around here yet. Mr. Benson saw one recently when he was out fishing, and we have one or two other reports of them this season. A good-sized whale can create a hazard for a small boat. They apparently like to rise under a boat which is 1 riding without its motor running to 1 scratch their backs on the vessel's bottom, Without the least malevolence on the part of the whale, this can make for difficulties. Around here whales usually appear in June and are gone in September. They pasture on plankton, the same food as that eaten by the herring. "Plankton," says one writer, "is to the sea what grass is to the land - the basic food. All forms of plankton are very small, often microscopic...!” One authority has figured that in the food chain of the sea it would take 1 million pounds s of mackerel flesh (fragment missing). If your arithmetic is better than ours, perhaps you can figure out how many pounds it would take to support a whale from which 150 gallons of oil were rendered. The try house at Bass Harbor was run by Benson from the time it was built until the process was discontinued. At one time there were four Benjamin Bensons in the community. The original one who came from New Bedford was called “Grand Sir.” He had a son named for him who was called “Just Plain Ben.” One of Grand Sir's daughters married another Benjamin Benson who had come here from New Hampshire. He was called “Country Ben.” Just Plain Ben had a son also named Benjamin. He was called “Little Ben.” - “MDI's Short Lived Whaling Industry Began In Bass Harbor” by LaRue Spiker appeared in the Bar Harbor Times on November 3, 1960 and was reprinted in the Tremont Historical Society Newsletter - V5 #3 - July, 2001. Atlantic Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus (A.K.A. - Alewife, Bunker, Pogy, Bugmouth, Fat-Back) "And lastly, there are the Menhaden. More often called “Pogies” here in Maine, they once provided a robust seine fishery that rivaled herring. The Pogies were a great source of oil. Their oil and fat content were suitable for extraction. Ground-up fish were cooked in big kettles (try-pots) much the same way that whale blubber was and the resultant oil was valuable. That was all before my time and it is legend now. But the names remain. “Try-House Point”, “Fish House Point” and “Try-Kettle Cove” are still here even though the reasons for their names have long since gone." www.fishermensvoice.com/archives/atlanticstatesnews0905.html, Accessed 2007. “The Menhaden Fishery - It is claimed by the fishermen of Surry that the menhaden fishery of the United States originated with the people of that town. For many years menhaden were abundant in all of the shore-waters of the district, being particularly so in Frenchman's and Union Bays. At first they were taken only in small numbers for use as bait in the shore-fisheries, but later, when it was discovered that marketable oil could be obtained from them, the fishery increased enormously, and hundreds of fishermen provided themselves with nets and kettles for engaging in the work. Between 1855 and 1863 it is estimated that not less than a hundred try-houses, with two to four kettles each, were in operation between Lamoine and Gouldsboro. Since 1870 the fishery has been less important, and for a number of years, owing to the absence of menhaden from these waters, it has been entirely discontinued.” - The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States by George Brown Goode, Washington Government Printing Office. Section II, p. 28 – 1887 “Since the days of Captain John Smith, 1614, no systematic attempt to capture Fin Whales on the coast of New England appears to have been made until about 1810, when according to R. E. Earll, a shore-fishery was begun and successfully prosecuted for a number of years, from Prospect Harbor, in Frenchman's Bay, Maine. This industry was undertaken by Stephen Clark and L. Hiller, of Rochester, Mass., who "came to the region, and built try-works on the shore, having their lookout station on the top of an adjoining hill. The whales usually followed the menhaden to the shore, arriving about the 1st of June, and remaining till September... Ten years later they began using small vessels in the fishery, and by this means were enabled to go farther from land. The fishery was at its height between 1835 and 1840 when an average of six or seven whales were taken yearly... The business was discontinued about 1860, since which date but one or two whales have been taken." It is probable that Humpback Whales constituted the chief part of the catch, if indeed any others were taken at all. Clark further informs us that "shore-whaling in the vicinity of Tremont, [Maine] began about 1840. Mr. Benjamin Beaver and a small crew of men caught three or more whales annually for about twenty years, but gave up the business in 1860. No more whales were taken from this time till the spring of 1880, when one was taken and brought into Bass Harbor, and yielded 1,200 gallons of oil but no bone of value.” - “The Whalebone Whales of New England” by Glover Morrill Allen, published by the Boston Society of Natural History, printed for the society with aid from the Gurdon Saltonstall Fund, 1916 | 
Description: "It is a little known fact that Mount Desert Island men participated in one of America's earliest and most storied industries - whaling. In 1776 Benjamin Benson, great grandfather of Ralph Benson of Bernard, sailed out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, in the whaling vessel which he captained, He finally dropped anchor at Bass Harbor, which he selected as a base for his operations. He built a try house on a point of land at the mouth of the harbor and used his ship and crew for hunting whales in the surrounding waters, particularly near Mt. Desert Rock. The try house, a small frame structure, stood on the point behind the present home of Farrell Davisson almost directly across the harbor from the Underwood sardine plant until it was finally demolished about 1910. By the time the building was torn down the equipment used in the rendering process was gone. However, Ralph Benson owns the muzzle-loading gun for shooting, the harpoon and a whale oil lamp. The grapnel used for hauling the whale behind the ship is also in Bernard. Whalebone, which was discarded during the oil extracting process, is still occasionally dug up from the sand during, excavations along the shore of the harbor. The whale was located by the ship. When one was found, a part of the crew put out in a small boat and carefully rowed as near the prey as possible. The whale was shot with a harpoon from the muzzle-loading gun. If the carcass sank, it was raised with a four-hook grapnel weighing about 200 pounds and towed by the ship to the rendering plant. The several inch thick layer of blubber under the skin was the only part of the whale used here. The blubber was stripped off and placed in huge iron kettles to cook over a slow fire. The round-bottomed kettles, holding about 150 gallons each, were some four and a half feet in diameter at the top. A flat lip encircling the rim was supported on a brick fireplace holding the kettle off the fire beneath. The oil thus rendered was used as the fuel in whale oil lamps, which were the first development for home lighting after candles. The little lamp in Mr. Benson's possession was part of the stock of his grandfather's general store located on the same site as Benson's present wharf. The clear glass base, which held the fuel, is about eight inches across the bottom and tapering to the top. The opening is capped with metal on which there are two small spouts through which the wicks were run. There was no chimney to the lamp. The whale oil trying industry lasted until about 1860 or 1870 when the discovery and development of petroleum wrote a finis to it. Whales, some of them 80 feet in length, are still seen in the waters around here yet. Mr. Benson saw one recently when he was out fishing, and we have one or two other reports of them this season. A good-sized whale can create a hazard for a small boat. They apparently like to rise under a boat which is 1 riding without its motor running to 1 scratch their backs on the vessel's bottom, Without the least malevolence on the part of the whale, this can make for difficulties. Around here whales usually appear in June and are gone in September. They pasture on plankton, the same food as that eaten by the herring. "Plankton," says one writer, "is to the sea what grass is to the land - the basic food. All forms of plankton are very small, often microscopic...!” One authority has figured that in the food chain of the sea it would take 1 million pounds s of mackerel flesh (fragment missing). If your arithmetic is better than ours, perhaps you can figure out how many pounds it would take to support a whale from which 150 gallons of oil were rendered. The try house at Bass Harbor was run by Benson from the time it was built until the process was discontinued. At one time there were four Benjamin Bensons in the community. The original one who came from New Bedford was called “Grand Sir.” He had a son named for him who was called “Just Plain Ben.” One of Grand Sir's daughters married another Benjamin Benson who had come here from New Hampshire. He was called “Country Ben.” Just Plain Ben had a son also named Benjamin. He was called “Little Ben.” - “MDI's Short Lived Whaling Industry Began In Bass Harbor” by LaRue Spiker appeared in the Bar Harbor Times on November 3, 1960 and was reprinted in the Tremont Historical Society Newsletter - V5 #3 - July, 2001. Atlantic Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus (A.K.A. - Alewife, Bunker, Pogy, Bugmouth, Fat-Back) "And lastly, there are the Menhaden. More often called “Pogies” here in Maine, they once provided a robust seine fishery that rivaled herring. The Pogies were a great source of oil. Their oil and fat content were suitable for extraction. Ground-up fish were cooked in big kettles (try-pots) much the same way that whale blubber was and the resultant oil was valuable. That was all before my time and it is legend now. But the names remain. “Try-House Point”, “Fish House Point” and “Try-Kettle Cove” are still here even though the reasons for their names have long since gone." www.fishermensvoice.com/archives/atlanticstatesnews0905.html, Accessed 2007. “The Menhaden Fishery - It is claimed by the fishermen of Surry that the menhaden fishery of the United States originated with the people of that town. For many years menhaden were abundant in all of the shore-waters of the district, being particularly so in Frenchman's and Union Bays. At first they were taken only in small numbers for use as bait in the shore-fisheries, but later, when it was discovered that marketable oil could be obtained from them, the fishery increased enormously, and hundreds of fishermen provided themselves with nets and kettles for engaging in the work. Between 1855 and 1863 it is estimated that not less than a hundred try-houses, with two to four kettles each, were in operation between Lamoine and Gouldsboro. Since 1870 the fishery has been less important, and for a number of years, owing to the absence of menhaden from these waters, it has been entirely discontinued.” - The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States by George Brown Goode, Washington Government Printing Office. Section II, p. 28 – 1887 “Since the days of Captain John Smith, 1614, no systematic attempt to capture Fin Whales on the coast of New England appears to have been made until about 1810, when according to R. E. Earll, a shore-fishery was begun and successfully prosecuted for a number of years, from Prospect Harbor, in Frenchman's Bay, Maine. This industry was undertaken by Stephen Clark and L. Hiller, of Rochester, Mass., who "came to the region, and built try-works on the shore, having their lookout station on the top of an adjoining hill. The whales usually followed the menhaden to the shore, arriving about the 1st of June, and remaining till September... Ten years later they began using small vessels in the fishery, and by this means were enabled to go farther from land. The fishery was at its height between 1835 and 1840 when an average of six or seven whales were taken yearly... The business was discontinued about 1860, since which date but one or two whales have been taken." It is probable that Humpback Whales constituted the chief part of the catch, if indeed any others were taken at all. Clark further informs us that "shore-whaling in the vicinity of Tremont, [Maine] began about 1840. Mr. Benjamin Beaver and a small crew of men caught three or more whales annually for about twenty years, but gave up the business in 1860. No more whales were taken from this time till the spring of 1880, when one was taken and brought into Bass Harbor, and yielded 1,200 gallons of oil but no bone of value.” - “The Whalebone Whales of New England” by Glover Morrill Allen, published by the Boston Society of Natural History, printed for the society with aid from the Gurdon Saltonstall Fund, 1916 [show more] | ||||
| 15113 | Jackson Laboratory |
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| 14851 | Echo Lake Girl Scout Camp |
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| 14854 | The Old Narraguagus House, Cherryfield, Maine |
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| 14699 | White Head Life Saving Station |
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| Town - Tenants Harbor, Maine Geographic Location - built on "White Head Island, one-half mile west of White Head Light" Longitude & Latitude - USLSS Station #5 - First District Coast Guard Station #6 Station Established - 1874 1874-June 1883 - called Whitehead Island Station. 1883 - called White Head Station 1889 - Repaired and improved. Dwelling Constructed - 1921 Disposition - July 1955 - dropped from station lists. 1956 - turned over to the General Service Administration. NRHP - White Head Life Saving Station Keepers: October 16,1874-June 30, 1882 - Horace F. Norton September 5, 1882- August 5, 1911 - Freeman Shea August 23, 1911 - October 23, 1917 - Alonzo Maker October 1917 - November 1918 or later - Rollo A. Morton June 24, 1919 - November 23, 1925 - Everett M. Mills and Lee R. Dunn November 22, 1925 - October 1, 1926 - Alan R. Tabbutt November 11, 1925 - April 25, 1929 - Wallace I. Brown July 21, 1929 - July 12, 1935 - Everett M. Mills July 10, 1935 - January 1. 1939 - Lee R. Dunn | 
Description: Town - Tenants Harbor, Maine Geographic Location - built on "White Head Island, one-half mile west of White Head Light" Longitude & Latitude - USLSS Station #5 - First District Coast Guard Station #6 Station Established - 1874 1874-June 1883 - called Whitehead Island Station. 1883 - called White Head Station 1889 - Repaired and improved. Dwelling Constructed - 1921 Disposition - July 1955 - dropped from station lists. 1956 - turned over to the General Service Administration. NRHP - White Head Life Saving Station Keepers: October 16,1874-June 30, 1882 - Horace F. Norton September 5, 1882- August 5, 1911 - Freeman Shea August 23, 1911 - October 23, 1917 - Alonzo Maker October 1917 - November 1918 or later - Rollo A. Morton June 24, 1919 - November 23, 1925 - Everett M. Mills and Lee R. Dunn November 22, 1925 - October 1, 1926 - Alan R. Tabbutt November 11, 1925 - April 25, 1929 - Wallace I. Brown July 21, 1929 - July 12, 1935 - Everett M. Mills July 10, 1935 - January 1. 1939 - Lee R. Dunn [show more] | ||||
| 14536 | Alden Designs |
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| 14550 | Richardson Family Flintlock Musket |
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| The gun was possibly used in the Battle of Norwood Cove. | 
Description: The gun was possibly used in the Battle of Norwood Cove. | |||||
| 14415 | Naval Coaling Station, Lamoine, Maine |
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| 14265 | Stanley Dry Plate Company |
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| 13883 | Sawin's Cambridge Express |
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| Moses Morse Sawin bought Buck's Express on August 14, 1860, "He conducted this business several years under its old name, then changed it to Sawin’s Express, which became one of the best known and most flourishing of the suburban express lines about Boston. His business was in transporting baggage and merchandise between Boston and Cambridge. He continued business until 1905, when he sold out to the Boston & Suburban Express Company, and retired from active business." - A History of Cambridge, Massachusetts (1630-1913) by Samuel Atkins Eliot, A.M., D.D. Together With Biographies of Cambridge People – The Cambridge Tribune, p. 243-4 – 1913 Sawin's Express was such a fixture of life at Harvard, transporting students' luggage to and from school, that it appeared often in jokes, skits and in Harvard alumnae publications. | 
Description: Moses Morse Sawin bought Buck's Express on August 14, 1860, "He conducted this business several years under its old name, then changed it to Sawin’s Express, which became one of the best known and most flourishing of the suburban express lines about Boston. His business was in transporting baggage and merchandise between Boston and Cambridge. He continued business until 1905, when he sold out to the Boston & Suburban Express Company, and retired from active business." - A History of Cambridge, Massachusetts (1630-1913) by Samuel Atkins Eliot, A.M., D.D. Together With Biographies of Cambridge People – The Cambridge Tribune, p. 243-4 – 1913 Sawin's Express was such a fixture of life at Harvard, transporting students' luggage to and from school, that it appeared often in jokes, skits and in Harvard alumnae publications. [show more] | |||||
| 13760 | The Gazebo at Fox Dens |
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| 13696 | Primary School building Fire Station Town offices building |
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| Built in 1917 at 329 Main Street by R.M. Norwood Moved across the street to 26 Village Green Way in 1938 Renovated from school building to house fire trucks. Renovated again to house the town offices | 
Description: Built in 1917 at 329 Main Street by R.M. Norwood Moved across the street to 26 Village Green Way in 1938 Renovated from school building to house fire trucks. Renovated again to house the town offices | |||
| 13697 | Southwest Harbor Schoolhouse Building Harmon Block |
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| Built in 1862 at 329 Main Street at the Southwest Harbor Schoolhouse Moved in 1906 to 339 Main Street, purchased by George Harmon and converted in to commercial space and apartments. "In 1906 the new town voted to build a new schoolhouse at the village and raised the sum of $4500 to do so. This sum included the purchase of additional land. The old building stood close to the main road and had but little land surrounding it, and the new one was to be set farther back with a playground in front of it. The old building was sold to George Harmon and moved to the lot south of the school lot where it is now used for stores and apartments. [Now the Harmon Block at 339 Main Street, Map 6 - Lot 93, MHPC #405-0081] | Southwest Harbor Schoolhouse Building Harmon Block
Description: Built in 1862 at 329 Main Street at the Southwest Harbor Schoolhouse Moved in 1906 to 339 Main Street, purchased by George Harmon and converted in to commercial space and apartments. "In 1906 the new town voted to build a new schoolhouse at the village and raised the sum of $4500 to do so. This sum included the purchase of additional land. The old building stood close to the main road and had but little land surrounding it, and the new one was to be set farther back with a playground in front of it. The old building was sold to George Harmon and moved to the lot south of the school lot where it is now used for stores and apartments. [Now the Harmon Block at 339 Main Street, Map 6 - Lot 93, MHPC #405-0081] [show more] | |||
| 13625 | Ellsworth City Hall |
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| 13582 | Grounds and Buildings of the Great Pond Camp |
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| 13444 | Advertisement for Hartford Marine Engines |
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| 13442 | Hartford Marine Gas Engines |
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| The Gray and Prior Machine Company in Hartford, Connecticut made “Hartford” marine engines. The company was organized in 1898 and incorporated in 1900 to make marine engines. It was the combined vision of Robert Watkinson Gray (1876-1945) and George A. Prior (1871-1938). George Prior had learned the machine trade at Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, had worked for the Electric Vehicle Company and had been granted a patent for a universal joint. Robert Gray had worked for the Hartford Rubber Works and contributed $5,000 in capital. George Prior was an inventive genius and contributed much to the initial success of the company. He designed and built his own motorcycle in 1900, and completed his first automobile in 1904, both using the Gray and Prior 2-cylinder marine engine that he designed. He applied his vast experience in the machine shop to his inventions and designs, which have been the foundation of the success of the Gray and Prior Machine Company for almost a century. Gray and Prior originally made marine engines in addition to their growing line of universal joints and couplings. Their Hartford Marine engines were of very high quality and commanded respect in the market. They built two-stroke inboard engines and medium heavy-duty type long stroke four-cycle marine motors. Many of the ideas involved in their design were improvements over existing marine engines of the day. Gray and Prior continued to manufacture the engines for more than 25 years, until they sold the tooling and the designs for the Hartford Sturdy Twin to the Indian Motorcycle Company in Springfield, Massachusetts for $15,000. - Information adapted from “Our Company’s History,” The Gray and Prior Machine Company web site, Accessed online 04/13/2012; http://www.grayandprior.com/history.htm | 
Description: The Gray and Prior Machine Company in Hartford, Connecticut made “Hartford” marine engines. The company was organized in 1898 and incorporated in 1900 to make marine engines. It was the combined vision of Robert Watkinson Gray (1876-1945) and George A. Prior (1871-1938). George Prior had learned the machine trade at Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, had worked for the Electric Vehicle Company and had been granted a patent for a universal joint. Robert Gray had worked for the Hartford Rubber Works and contributed $5,000 in capital. George Prior was an inventive genius and contributed much to the initial success of the company. He designed and built his own motorcycle in 1900, and completed his first automobile in 1904, both using the Gray and Prior 2-cylinder marine engine that he designed. He applied his vast experience in the machine shop to his inventions and designs, which have been the foundation of the success of the Gray and Prior Machine Company for almost a century. Gray and Prior originally made marine engines in addition to their growing line of universal joints and couplings. Their Hartford Marine engines were of very high quality and commanded respect in the market. They built two-stroke inboard engines and medium heavy-duty type long stroke four-cycle marine motors. Many of the ideas involved in their design were improvements over existing marine engines of the day. Gray and Prior continued to manufacture the engines for more than 25 years, until they sold the tooling and the designs for the Hartford Sturdy Twin to the Indian Motorcycle Company in Springfield, Massachusetts for $15,000. - Information adapted from “Our Company’s History,” The Gray and Prior Machine Company web site, Accessed online 04/13/2012; http://www.grayandprior.com/history.htm [show more] | |||||
| 13377 | Revenue Ensign - Flag of the United States Customs Service |
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| The Custom's service flag was designed by Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Alexander Hamilton’s successor, who used 16 alternating red and white vertical stripes, one stripe for each State that had joined the Union by 1799, with a bald eagle in the canton holding 3 arrows in his sinister claw and an olive branch in his dexter claw. On the left and right sides of the eagle are 4 stars each in an arc pattern, and above the eagle 5 stars. On the eagle is a crest representing the United States. Wolcott submitted his flag design to President John Adams in 1799 and the final version was approved on August 1st, 1799. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who served as customs surveyor at the port of Salem, Massachusetts, from 1846 to 1849, suggested the "stripes turned vertically, not horizontally, indicated a civil, not military, post of Uncle Sam’s government." Although originally intended as a marine ensign to be flown from revenue cutters and customs vessels, the collectors soon were flying it over their customhouses. That tradition was codified a half-century later, when in 1874, Treasury Secretary William A. Richardson, required that during business hours, the customs ensign was to be hoisted by the side of the Stars and Stripes over all customhouses. From Wikipedia: The flag of the Customs Service was designed in 1799 by Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr. and consists of 16 vertical red and white stripes with a coat of arms depicted in blue on the white canton. The original design had the Customs Service seal that was an eagle with three arrows in his left talon, an olive branch in his right and surrounded by an arc of 13 stars. In 1951, this was changed to the eagle depicted on the Great Seal of the United States. Its actual name is the Revenue Ensign, as it was flown by ships of the Revenue Cutter Service, later the Coast Guard, and at customs houses. | 
Description: The Custom's service flag was designed by Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Alexander Hamilton’s successor, who used 16 alternating red and white vertical stripes, one stripe for each State that had joined the Union by 1799, with a bald eagle in the canton holding 3 arrows in his sinister claw and an olive branch in his dexter claw. On the left and right sides of the eagle are 4 stars each in an arc pattern, and above the eagle 5 stars. On the eagle is a crest representing the United States. Wolcott submitted his flag design to President John Adams in 1799 and the final version was approved on August 1st, 1799. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who served as customs surveyor at the port of Salem, Massachusetts, from 1846 to 1849, suggested the "stripes turned vertically, not horizontally, indicated a civil, not military, post of Uncle Sam’s government." Although originally intended as a marine ensign to be flown from revenue cutters and customs vessels, the collectors soon were flying it over their customhouses. That tradition was codified a half-century later, when in 1874, Treasury Secretary William A. Richardson, required that during business hours, the customs ensign was to be hoisted by the side of the Stars and Stripes over all customhouses. From Wikipedia: The flag of the Customs Service was designed in 1799 by Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr. and consists of 16 vertical red and white stripes with a coat of arms depicted in blue on the white canton. The original design had the Customs Service seal that was an eagle with three arrows in his left talon, an olive branch in his right and surrounded by an arc of 13 stars. In 1951, this was changed to the eagle depicted on the Great Seal of the United States. Its actual name is the Revenue Ensign, as it was flown by ships of the Revenue Cutter Service, later the Coast Guard, and at customs houses. [show more] | |||||
| 13378 | Flag of the United States Customs Service |
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