#Repost @seaportmuseum: Today is Tin Can Day. #OnThisDay in 1825, the first U.S. patent for the invention of the tin can was awarded to Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett.
Before the United States won its independence in 1783, the power to grant patents belonged to the British Crown. The United States Constitution of 1787 included provisions for Congress to issue patents: “The Congress shall have Power […] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” By 1825 more than 4,000 patents had been granted in the United States, one of them Durand’s.
This gallon tin once contained fresh oyster meat packed by the Shelter Island Oyster Company. Founder John Plock Sr. had started in the oyster business at a stand in the Fulton Market in New York City before opening his own oyster shucking business in Brooklyn. He opened a small Shelter Island Oyster Company in Rackett’s Basin at the entrance to Sterling Basin in Greenport in 1935.
This tin probably dates to the period 1935-1940, when colorful lithographed tins became popular. Shelter Island’s distinctive green and gold can featured a stylized men carrying a package on his shoulder with the sun/star’s rays shining on a waterfront line.
Image: “Shelter Island Oyster Can” ca. 1940; tin, paint. South Street Seaport Museum, 1989.054.0005
#TinCanDay #oyster #GreenportNY #SSSMcollection #SouthStreetSeaportMuseum (at South Street Seaport Museum)