Collection
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.
Search the Collection
The Museum Collection
The Museum of American Heritage preserves and presents the evolution of American invention. We collect, conserve and exhibit the wonderfully ingenious electrical and mechanical devices that have developed over the last two centuries.
MOAH is very excited to bring our collection online. Some of the photos in our database are over 20 years old and are in the process of being re-done. If you would like to further support this effort, please consider donating to MOAH ONLINE or by MAIL.
The Museum's collection is loaned out to various accredited Museums. Contact MAIL@MOAH.ORG for more information.
Helpful Notes for Navigating the Collection:
Click on Search our Collection Button Select Guest Account radio button and click Login button. You will see an artifact entry.
To search our collection, click on Find on the right hand corner. Click on the field(s) you want to search and enter the desired search terms. Click "Perform Find". The number of artifacts found are listed in the top left corner. Use the page icons (left & right arrows) in the top left to step through only the objects found. Do not use your browser forward/back arrows-you may inadvertently exit the application.
You can use the Find and Perform Find buttons to enter search terms (Object Description or Manufacturer, for example). Click the "Show All" button to exit the find mode and browse all records.
All fields visible in the guest layout can be searched except for the photo fields. Access and information is read-only. It is not possible to add, delete or modify records in the guest account. Photo resolution is limited. If you would like a high resolution photo of an artifact, please email us at admin@moah.org to request a photo and cite the accession number of the object in question. Processing fees may apply.
For example, if you are searching for typewriters, you can click "Find", enter click the Object Description field, enter "typewriter" and click "perform find" in the right hand corner. This will bring up around 212 typewriters. If you want to narrow your search, you can enter "typewriter" in the Object Description field and a brand, such as "Royal" in the Made By field, and it will yield the subset of typewriters made by Royal. You can even search the date it was made.
Click the "Log Out" button to leave the MOAH Collection data base and close the browser tab labeled "Filemaker Instant Web Publisher".