Thank you, Diane and Sheila for responding to my query.  What a great help
it will be when these are searchable on line!

Until then, I have found a useful page for using the patent numbers to
establish the earliest possible date that an object was made.  The page
lists the first patent number issued for each year since the 1800's.

http://www.pangea.com/~rock/oldtools/misctools/patentdates.html

I may still try to make it up to the Chicago library, but mostly because I
miss Chicago.

Thanks again!

William Scott

__________________________________________
William Philip Scott                     |
Collections Manager and Office Assistant |
Mathers Museum of World Cultures         |
Indiana University                       |
601 East Eighth Street                   |
Bloomington, IN 47405                    |
Email: [log in to unmask]                |
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