To celebrate Halloween, our colleagues took a look in our cartographic records at the National Archives to see if they could find any spooky records. They came across the following Utility Patent Drawings which certainly help to set the mood for the Halloween season.
A number of jack-o’-lantern designs came up in the patent drawings. You can see many different concepts for lanterns in the series.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Halloween without dressing up in costume. Take a look at some of design drawings for masks.
RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 434435
RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 885802
Perhaps the creepiest of all is this patent drawing for a special coffin which includes a “Device for Indicating Life in Buried Persons.”
RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 371626
You can learn more about the National Archives’ patents in a previous blog post, Utility Patent Drawings, and in our catalog here.
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