Toy Train: Museum Object and Cultural History
Toy Train: date made: ca 1963. Object Name: holography model. Object Name: toy train.
The object in the museum catalogue
This toy train was used in 1963 and 1964 as the subject for several of the earliest publically seen holograms. In late 1963, Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks at the University of Michigan’s Willow Run Laboratories demonstrated a method of making high-resolution, three-dimensional images using laser beams. Their success came after years of research by many scientists, so while “Toy Train” was not the first hologram, the quality of the image stunned everyone. In 1970 Leith and Upatnieks donated about a dozen of their early holograms and the toy train to the Smithsonian.
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: ca 1963
- Object Name: holography model
- Object Name: toy train
- Physical Description: metal (overall material)
- Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 2 1/8 in x 1 1/2 in x 7 1/2 in; 5.3975 cm x 3.81 cm x 19.05 cm
- subject: Toys
- subject: Laser
- subject: Hologram
- ID Number: EM.330400
- catalog number: 330400
- accession number: 288880
- Credit Line: from Emmett N. Leith and Juris Upatnieks
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.
Sources
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