Plan of the Patent Office Model Room, Washington

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The Patent Office Model Room was one of the most famous display spaces in Washington, where the government kept thousands of inventors' working models in glass cases. This plan shows how the room was laid out, with rows of cases arranged so visitors could move from one exhibit to the next. The Patent Office building, which also housed the national collection of models, was a major civic landmark, and the room drew crowds throughout the nineteenth century who came to see the mechanical ingenuity of the young country. A plan like this is useful for understanding how the collection was organized and displayed.

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