Patent Office. Illustration / Smithsonian Institution

The United States Patent Office was an accessible and transparent bureaucracy. In fact, the Patent Office encouraged ordinary citizens to examine its museum of patent models as a source of national pride and inventive inspiration. Image: South Hall, Museum of Models, Patent Office. Illustration from Joseph West Moore, Picturesque Washington: Pen and Pencil Sketches, 1887, SI negative 2008-4988.