Remember: Just because something existed or was known at the time does NOT mean it was used by or was familiar to the people of the Western United States!
1820
| 1830 | 1840 | 1850 | 1860 | 1870
| 1880 | 1890 | 1900
KEY TO COLOR CODING
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Old West |
Literature |
Science |
Food |
Industry |
Medicine |
Fine Arts |
General |
Book titles are listed in italics.
|
Old West |
Literature |
Science |
Food |
Industry |
Medicine |
Fine Arts |
General |
|
ITEM |
DATE |
REMARKS |
SOURCE |
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1860 |
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First baseball caps |
1869 |
U.S.; Ohio; Cincinnati Red Sox |
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Rotating toilet seat |
1869 |
invented to keep people from standing on the bowl; U.S.; Ohio; Francis Peters and George Clem |
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"QWERTY" Keyboard Typewriter |
1868 |
patented |
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First rubber-and-canvas shoes |
1868 |
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Gas water heater |
1868 |
England, Benjamin Waddy Maughn |
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Cro-Magnon Man |
1868 |
skeleton discovered; France; Louis Lartet |
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Little Women |
1868 |
Louisa May Alcott |
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Tom Dula (Dooley) |
1868 |
Hanged at Statesville NC, 2:17 pm on May 1 |
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Tabasco Sauce |
1868 |
Edmund McIhenny |
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Das Kapital |
1867 |
Karl Marx |
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Barbed Wire |
1867 |
patented |
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|
1867 |
Nebraska |
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Dynamite |
1866 |
Alfred Nobel |
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland |
1865 |
Lewis Carroll |
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Clothing sizes standardized |
1865 |
U.S.; American Civil War uniform factories |
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First pay toilets |
1865 |
London, England |
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Stetson "ten-gallon" hat |
1865 |
U.S., John Batterson Stetson |
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1865 |
Nevada |
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Cigarettes |
1864 |
The first American factory opens |
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Pasteurization |
1864 |
Louis Pasteur |
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First flash photograph |
1864 |
England, Henry Roscoe |
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Paper sewing patterns |
1863 |
U.S.; Ebenezer Butterick |
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Four-wheel roller skate |
1863 |
U.S.; James Plimpton |
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|
1863 |
West Virginia |
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Les Miserables |
1862 |
Victor Hugo |
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Steam-cleaning machine |
1862 |
used to wash large quantities of clothes, and centrifugal machine dries them; U.S |
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Gatling gun |
1861 |
Richard Jordan Gatling |
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Great Expectations |
1861 |
Charles Dickens |
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Transcontinental Telegraph |
1861 |
Western Union |
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1861 |
Kansas |
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First Confederate Flag (Stars and Bars) |
1861 |
Montgomery, Alabama |
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Shoe-sewing machine |
1860 |
chainstitches together the upper, lower, and inner parts of the shoe factory Massachusetts, William Porter & Sons |
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Powered wool clippers |
1860 |
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Linoleum |
1860 |
by Frederick Walton, England (sold in USA after 1908) |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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Barbiturate |
1860 |
Adoph Baeyer, Munich, Germany. (Not in production until 1903) |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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|
Old West |
Literature |
Science |
Food |
Industry |
Medicine |
Fine Arts |
General |
|
ITEM |
DATE |
REMARKS |
SOURCE |
|
|
1850 |
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|
1859 |
Oregon |
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Tale of Two Cities |
1859 |
Charles Dickens |
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Electric Home Lighting. |
1859 |
demonstrated for the first time in the U.S |
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Suez Canal |
1859 |
construction begins |
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On the Origin of Species |
1859 |
Charles Darwin |
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First paper patterns |
1859 |
U.S.; Madame Demorest |
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First washing machine patented |
1858 |
wooden drum with handcrank for rotating wooden wringer; Pennsylvania; Hamilton Smith |
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First use of the "Lohengrin" Bridal Chorus and Mendelssohn's Wedding March. |
1858 |
at Victoria and Albert's wedding |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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|
1858 |
Minnesota |
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Toilet Tissue |
1857 |
Invented by Jos. Gayetty (see 1890) |
"Panati's Extraordinary Origin of Everyday Things" (Harper & Row, 1987) |
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Currier & Ives |
1857 |
First prints issued |
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Madame Bovary |
1857 |
Gustave Flaubert |
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First fashion house |
1857 |
France; Charles Worth |
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First toilet paper marketed |
1857 |
U.S., Joseph Gayetty |
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Cage-crinoline developed |
1856 |
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First synthetic dye |
1856 |
mauveine; England; William Henry Perkin |
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Neanderthal man |
1856 |
Skull discovered; Germany |
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Innerspring Mattress |
ca. 1855 |
|
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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Safety Matches |
1855 |
by Anton von Schrotter, Germany |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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First dry cleaning business |
1855 |
France; Jean-Baptiste Jolly |
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Rectilinear shuttle |
1855 |
invented; allows stitches to be added or dropped on knitting loom; England; William Cotton |
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Walden |
1854 |
or "Life in the Woods" |
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Hard Times |
1854 |
Charles Dickens |
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Potato Chips |
1853 |
George Crum, Saratoga Springs, New York |
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Aspirin |
1853 |
Charles F. von Gerhardt, France |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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Safety Elevator |
1852 |
Elisha Graves Otis |
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Button-hole stitching sewing machine |
1852 |
St. Louis, Charles Miller |
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|
1851 |
California |
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New York Times |
1851 |
begins publication |
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Moby Dick |
1851 |
Herman Melville |
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Sewing Machine |
1851 |
I.M. Singer |
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Uncle Tom's Cabin |
1851 |
Harriet Beecher Stowe |
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Treadle-powered sewing machine |
1851 |
sold door-to-door; New York; Isaac Singer |
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Bloomers |
1851 |
First trousers for women introduced, featuring pants worn under a skirt; U.S.; Amelia Bloomer |
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Bibless Overalls |
1850 |
Levi Strauss |
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Worcestershire Sauce |
ca 1850 |
Sir Marcus Sandys, Worcester, England |
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Bowler (derby) hat |
1850 |
designed and named after one of the hatmaker’s suppliers, William Bowler; |
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Old West |
Literature |
Science |
Food |
Industry |
Medicine |
Fine Arts |
General |
|
ITEM |
DATE |
REMARKS |
SOURCE |
|
|
1840 |
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Safety pin |
1849 |
New York, Walter Hunt |
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Bathing dress for women designed |
1848 |
wide sleeves and big skirts make it difficult to move in water |
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1848 |
Wisconsin |
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Gold in California |
1848 |
Sutter's Mill |
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Communist Manifesto |
1848 |
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels |
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Boole's symbolic logic |
1847 |
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1847 |
Iowa |
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1846 |
Texas |
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Chocolate Chip Cookies |
post 1847 |
USA |
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Lock-stitch sewing machine |
1846 |
first patented (hand-cranked) U.S., Elias Howe |
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First packaged soap powder |
1845 |
New York |
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Scientific American |
1845 |
begins publication, New York |
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|
1845 |
Florida |
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Mercerization |
1844 |
the process for toughening cotton and giving it a sheen, is invented; England |
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YMCA |
1844 |
Dry-goods seller founds YMCA; London, England; George Williams |
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Beau Brummell |
1840 |
fashion leader, dies; England |
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|
Old West |
Literature |
Science |
Food |
Industry |
Medicine |
Fine Arts |
General |
|
ITEM |
DATE |
REMARKS |
SOURCE |
|
|
1830 |
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|
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Combine harvester |
1838 |
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Woman editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book |
1837 |
U.S.; Sarah Josepha Hale |
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|
1837 |
Michigan |
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Sewing Machine |
1836 |
by Elias Howe / Isaac Singer |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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Colt Revolver |
1836 |
patented |
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|
1836 |
Arkansas |
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First photograph |
1835 |
a daguerroeotype, Louis Daguerre creates a permanent picture that develops in 20 minutes; France |
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First lock-stitch sewing machine |
1834 |
New York; Walter Hunt |
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Martin Guitar Co. |
1833 |
"parlor" size |
C. F. Martin Guitar Co. |
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First factory inspector |
1833 |
appointed to improve working conditions in factories; England |
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Opera hat |
1832 |
collapsible top hat, invented; France; Antoine Gibus |
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Babbage's Analytic Engine |
1832 |
(never built) |
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washing machine |
1831 |
invented; hand-cranked, cataract (tumbling) |
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Les Canuts |
1831 |
Silk-workers, called Les Canuts, rebel against working conditions France |
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Underclothing commonly worn |
ca. 1830 |
|
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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Lawn Mower |
1830 |
by Edwin Budding, England |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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Graham Crackers |
ca 1830 |
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Sewing Machine |
1830 |
by Barthelemy Thimmonier, France (the machines were destroyed by a mob) |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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Banjos |
ca. 1830 |
fretless, gourd body, gut strings |
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|
Old West |
Literature |
Science |
Food |
Industry |
Medicine |
Fine Arts |
General |
|
ITEM |
DATE |
REMARKS |
SOURCE |
|
|
1820 |
|
|
|
Friction Matches |
1826 |
by John Walker, England |
Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Harper & Row, 1987 |
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1822 |
Missouri |
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Difference Engine |
1822 |
Charles Babbage (origin of the computer) |
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1820 |
Alabama, Maine |
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Pow Wows, or, The Long Lost Friend |
1820 |
John George Hohman |
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