Shovel Museum

Known formally as the Stonehill Industrial History Center, it's located on the campus of Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

The collection boasts 755 different models of shovels manufactured by the Ames companies.

From the FAQ:

By the 1870s Ames was the largest shovel manufacturer in the world, making three-fifths of the world’s shovels, although even as early as the 1830s and 1840s they struggled to meet the demand for their highly prized products. Ames shovels were the tool of choice in both the California and Australian gold rushes as well as in most major American building projects including the Erie and Panama Canals and most American railroad construction. Ames shovels literally built America.

Ames created a display of 19 silver-plated shovels for the 1876 U. S. Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Part of the Shovel Museum, they are still in their original display case (top).

[via maisonbisson.com]