Mouse Trap
date: label: date made
content: ca 1740
notes: label: Description
content: This homemade mousetrap was found in a home in Amityville, New York and donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1891. 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: New York, Amityville
label: DELETE
content: United States: New York, Amityville
label: place used; place found
content: United States: New York, Amityville
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: John E. Ireland
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.152509
label: catalog number
content: 152509
label: accession number
content: 24186
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mouse Trap
label: Object Name
content: mousetrap
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal, iron (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 4 1/4 in x 2 in; 5.08 cm x 10.795 cm x 5.08 cm