The Haunted Archives

To celebrate Halloween, we took a look in our cartographic records at the National Archives to see if we could find any spooky records. We came across the following Utility Patent Drawings (NAID 305888) 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.

RG241_PATENTUT_396252 — RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 396252

RG241_PATENTUT_715379 — RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 715379

RG241_PATENTUT_848938 — RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 848938

Of course, it wouldn’t be Halloween without dressing up in costume. Take a look at some of design drawings for masks.

RG241_PATENTUT_434435 — RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 434435

RG241_PATENTUT_730357 — RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 730357

RG241_PATENTUT_885802 — 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.”

RG241_PATENTUT_371626 — RG 241, Utility Patent Drawings, 371626

You can learn more about the National Archives’ patents in our previous blog post, Utility Patent Drawings, and in our catalog here.

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