Mining in the Museum: Mineral Technology on Display in American History (Public History in Historical Perspective)

Examining 150 years of mining and mineral technology exhibits at the Smithsonian Buried deep underground or cut into remote landscapes, mines are often dirty, dark, and dangerous places, located far from the everyday urban spaces that most Americans call home.Yet mining is foundational to the making of the United States, supplying the raw materials that built its infrastructure, powered its industries, and shaped its scientific institutions, even as the work itself has remained physically removed, technically complex, and culturally overlooked.Mining in the Museum reveals how Americans have encountered this vital industry not at the distant mine face, but in museum galleries.Tracing more than 150 years of mining and mineral technology exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, Eric C.Nystrom shows how curators transformed ore, instruments, models, and machinery into stories about progress, innovation, and national development, and how those interpretive choices shaped w