How to 3D Print Some Smithsonian Artifacts at Home
If you’ve always wanted to own a historical artifact, now you have another better thing: a 3D printed copy of it.
The Smithsonian Museum Network offers 3D images of some of its collections and, more importantly, plans so you can print some of these items at home with your own 3D printer.
The artifacts available for printing range from things like fossils to replicas of the head of Abraham Lincoln.
The idea behind the project is that museums keep a number of artifacts that many people may never have the opportunity to visit in person. The technology could potentially be used to allow teachers to upload plans of things and print out subjects to showcase their classes.
3D copies are also available for viewing online, so even if you don’t have a printer to make a physical copy of yourself, you can get a better idea of what something might look like than by looking at a traditional photograph.
The Smithsonian notes that only 1% of its collection is on display at one point in time, so 3D copies also create an opportunity to make the most of the collection available to people at any time.
And every day more and more artifacts are added to the collection. The project has been in development for several years now, and new things are added all the time, so even if you’ve checked it out before, it’s worth looking at it again.