In the rear gallery
Here are several construction toys that, with the exception of the Erector crane rail car, didn't require assembly. Kids could just dive in and have fun with them. The steam shovel is of particular interest because it is closely modeled after the steam shovels used to dig the Panama Canal in the second decade of the Twentieth Century. This toy could also be ridden, although it's small wheels limited its velocity.
Construction equipment has also inspired any number of children's books, which, if not exactly toys, have certainly provided hours of pleasure to their owners.
The sequence of pictures shown here records the use of some real construction equipment as a new residential building was erected next to the Museum shortly before this exhibit opened.
This humble-looking Standard Vacuum Sweeper is the reason this Museum exists. In the early 1970s, accountant Frank Livermore spotted this sweeper in the corner of a local junk shop and, intrigued by its mechanical workings, Frank bought it on the spot. From that day on, he became a collector, and soon his Menlo Park home was bulging at the seams with his eclectic collection of antique mechanical and electrical devices.
Frank's friends joked that he should start a Museum of his own and, when one gave him a sign saying, Smithsonian West, Frank began to take the idea seriously. Frank and attorney Perry Moerdyke began the process of forming a registered non-profit Museum. In 1985 the Museum of American Heritage was incorporated. Frank's collection formed the nucleus of the Museum. In 1990 the Museum of American Heritage opened at its first location on Alma Street in Palo Alto and in 1997 MOAH was awarded tenancy of the City of Palo Alto's historic Williams House.
The Frank Livermore Trust was established to provide ongoing financial support for the care and maintenance of the collection.
Frank passed away in 2000, yet his curiosity and reverence for the spirit of innovation lives on in this Museum.
Today the collection boasts over 6,000 mechanical and electrical artifacts largely dating from the 1850s to the 1950s, which are housed in an offsite warehouse. Our artifacts are displayed in rotating exhibits at the Museum and are often loaned to other Museums and institutions for exhibit purposes.
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