From the NMAH blog:

I’m a bad steampunk. I like pretty things with brass and wood, but I end up injuring myself when I try to build/sew/knit/glue things, with the end result usually only a mess. With the exceptions of berets, I don’t do hats very well even if I could afford them. Mostly, I like something because it’s pretty. And because ye-olde-timey moustaches kind of rock my socks, but that might be something entirely different.

The National Museum of American History doesn’t seem like the first place you would look for Victoriana, but delight in invention wasn’t limited to those across the pond. And, as the former National Museum of History and Technology, we have quite the range of attractive and inventive artifacts which I know will inspire my next creation purchase daydream. I’ve compiled a list of my favorites around the museum, but we’d love to hear your thoughts. Inspiring creativity and invention, the real glue for the steampunk aesthete, is as much in our educational mission as teaching the War of 1812.