Mouse Trap
date: label: date made
content: 1800 - 1900
notes: label: Description
content: This large iron spring trap may have been fashioned by an unidentified blacksmith in the 19th century. Since the U.S. Patent Office was formally established in 1838, it has granted more than forty-four hundred mousetrap patents, more than any other invention. John Mast heeded Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice to, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” and in 1899 built the more familiar snap trap which received its patent in 1903. Simple and effective, Mast’s trap is the best-selling mousetrap of all time. However, inventors are still attempting to improve upon Mast’s design—the Patent Office grants about 40 patents for mousetraps a year, and it receives almost ten times as many patent requests!
label: Description
content: The simple mousetrap is a testament to American ingenuity. Inventors and innovators have sought to deal with the mice in different ways - some traps are “beheaders,” some “imprisoners,” and some are “mashers.” No matter the design, the mousetrap has an undeniable grasp on the American imagination, with board games, gambling apparatus, and even movies being based on this pervasive mammal and the attempts to capture it.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
topic: label: Subject
content: Animals
label: Subject
content: Household Tools and Equipment
label: Subject
content: Pest Control
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Artifact Walls exhibit
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Myrtle Z. Hough
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.377834
label: catalog number
content: 377834
label: accession number
content: 136880
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mousetrap
label: Object Name
content: mousetrap
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron, wrought (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 1/2 in x 7 in x 4 3/4 in; 8.89 cm x 17.78 cm x 12.065 cm