Patent of the Month: Still Design, 1808

Stills similar to the one represented in this drawing were used to make distilled liquors and were commonly used in America during the early 19th-century. And their "descendants" are still being found in the mountains of rural America! A preview of an exhibit planned for 2015 here at the National Archives: “Spirited Republic.” Eli Barnum … Continue reading Patent of the Month: Still Design, 1808

Calling All Walt Whitman Fans

Ken Price, the Hillegass University Professor of American Literature and co-editor of The Walt Whitman Archive at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, needs our help. Mining the records of the Office of the Attorney General here at the National Archives, Price has discovered 3000 documents in Whitman’s hand. His discovery is described in a 2011 Prologue … Continue reading Calling All Walt Whitman Fans