Catalin Bracelet Set, 1928-1940

This rhinestone-encrusted bangle bracelet was purchased in a second-hand boutique in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the late 1960s, when the area was known as the center of the "hippie" counterculture. Self-described hippies sought to break with mainstream America and create their own society. This garishly decorated bracelet is a good example of hippie aesthetics.

Spinning frames spin cotton fiber into yarn and then wind it onto a bobbin. This throstle spinning frame could simultaneously spin 64 strands of yarn. (Throstle -- an old name for a song thrush -- refers to the bird-like sounds the machine made.) Machines like this helped produce the large quantities of yarn that growing industrial weaving operations needed in the early and mid-1800s.

When Leo Baekeland finally succeeded in developing the first chemically synthetic plastic in 1907, he knew he'd created a versatile material with broad appeal. Indeed, "Bakelite" proved suitable for a wide range of industrial and commercial applications. Touted as "the material of a thousand uses," Bakelite became a household name and helped usher in the age of plastics.