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HISTORY This room is one of the most exciting in the museum because it shows history from a completely  different viewpoint, that of an association between people and a plant.  At some of the most important junctures of human civilization, in agriculture, transportation, exploration, communication, war, industry, invention, medicine, and art, hemp was there playing an important role as a basic resource.  For some of the history we will take you to different rooms of the Hemp Museum, but first a short overview of history with humans and hemp.  Let us begin way back in history.

AGRICULTURE Hemp was present at the dawn of human agriculture, thought to be some 10-15,000 years ago in the Middle East and China.  Hemp was reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Yearbook, 1914, to have been the first agricultural crop planted by humans for textile fibers.  Besides the cloth itself, a sample of which was dated at 9,000 years, is the record of pollen left behind at early human dwelling sites.

Of course in the middle east hemp grew wild, so it is likely it was used long before the age of agriculture for rope, twine, and fishnets.  Evidence of just such a human hemp culture comes from a History Channel report on the Scythians called the "Frozen Tombs of Siberia."

INDUSTRIAL HEMP FARMING ACT OF 2007

From the web project

A Peaceful Solution

By Willie & Amy Nelson

Sung by Rattlesnake Annie & Amy Nelson

MEDICINE HEALTH Hemp is a pain-reliever and an effective treatment for; anorexia, arthritis, asthma, epilepsy, AIDS, glaucoma, menstrual cramps, migraines, nausea and other ailments.  Hemp is a safer substitute for many over-the-counter and prescription medicines. The human brain appears to have receptors for hemp's active ingredient, THC.  And hemp medicine is now legal in California and six other states that have passed medical marijuana bills in some form.

FOOD PRODUCTS Edible hemp seeds are one of the most complete sources of vegetable protein available.  Hemp seed oil is lower in saturated fat and higher in essential fatty acids than any other vegetable or seed oil.   Imported from China, and now Canada, because American farmers are not allowed to compete on the world market with this high protein, excellent oil seed.     

Dr. Udo Erasmus, an internationally recognized nutritional authority on fats and oils, writes in his book "Fats that Heal - Fats that Kill:"

"Hemp seed oil may be nature's most perfectly balanced oil."

TEXTILES The textile room has over a thousand seconds of download time at 28.8 speed.  People made hemp fabric thousands of years before the advent of written language.  Hemp ropes and sails were the backbone of the sailing ship's service to people for 6,000 years.  Our first flag was made of sailcloth hemp.  My mother was born in the hemp growing state of Missouri, so she knew what hemp was from her family.  She did not know it was illegal to grow.  Scroll down through this room first.  I left a picture up for each sub-room so you could get an overview.

ROPE & TWINE Hemp rope, twine and fishnets probably predate the weaving of fabric.  Hemp rope and saddles set up a human to horse relationship that exists to the present. The oldest saddle ever found was made of hemp by the Scythians of the Siberian steppes, thousands of years ago. 

PAPER-PULP Every acre of hemp grown for paper or particle board saves four acres of trees. Hemp paper is more recyclable than tree paper, and its production does not require chlorine bleach or cause dioxin pollution.

The Hemp Paper Room is about much more than I ever expected. From the first discovery of writing or drawing,  people have looked for materials on which to write or  draw. Walls of caves, bones, bamboo strips, silk, clay  tablets, wood, metals, and papyrus (laminated grass  material) were written on for thousands of years prior to  the invention of papermaking.  True paper involves the use of pulped material in the manufacture of products.

BUILDING MATERIALS   FOOD, CLOTHING, AND SHELTER, could be called the big three creature comforts. Hemp can help in all three categories. Some building materials are relatively new owing to the machinery necessary to produce modern pressboard or plastics, but some are hundreds, some are thousands of years old.

Since the first woven fabric in antiquity was thought to be hemp, it is very likely that a hemp woven canvas tarp tossed across a hemp rope secured to two trees sheltered early hunters from the rain and made the first hemp shelter.

BIO-FUELS "Anything that can be made from hydrocarbons (oil, coal, natural gas), can be made from carbohydrates (plant material)." - source unknown.  HEMP BURNS AND THEREFORE PRODUCES ENERGY.

The U.S.A. Hemp Museum has been interested in fuels and energy from its start in 1990.   The curator spent many hours in the library of the California Energy Commission (C.E.C.) hoping to learn about biomass (plant matter) for fuels and energy.  During the 1992 election campaign I wrote an article called A NATURAL ENERGY POLICY, which is included in this section.  Among the things I learned from the C.E.C. was that Sacramento had a power plant not far from the Capitol built to burn biomass collected as waste tree, shrub, and grass trimmings. The plant was not in operation. As it was explained to me the green matter to be used as fuel was always too wet and irregular in composition to adequately fire the plant. California now has 33 biomass power plants in the state, operating mostly on forest logging waste.  These power plants could burn year round with hemp for energy.

CHEMICAL FEED STOCKS "Anything that can be made from hydrocarbons (oil, coal, natural gas), can be made from carbohydrates (plant material)." - source unknown.  HEMP BURNS AND THEREFORE PRODUCES ENERGY.

The U.S.A. Hemp Museum has been interested in fuels and energy from its start in 1990.   The curator spent many hours in the library of the California Energy Commission (C.E.C.) hoping to learn about biomass (plant matter) for fuels and energy.  During the 1992 election campaign I wrote an article called A NATURAL ENERGY POLICY, which is included in this section.  Among the things I learned from the C.E.C. was that Sacramento had a power plant not far from the Capitol built to burn biomass collected as waste tree, shrub, and grass trimmings. The plant was not in operation. As it was explained to me the green matter to be used as fuel was always too wet and irregular in composition to adequately fire the plant. California now has 33 biomass power plants in the state, operating mostly on forest logging waste.  These power plants could burn year round with hemp for energy.

VARNISH & PAINT  Artists of many cultures have painted with oil paints made of hemp seed oil on canvas (hemp).  This oil on canvas painting is from the new Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  Titled:  Bacchante with an Ape.  1627.  By Hendrick Ter Brugghen.  Many of the "old masters" painted on canvas.

PLASTICS "Anything that can be made from hydrocarbons (oil, coal, natural gas), can be made from carbohydrates (plant material)." - source unknown.

The above quote is again important because it dispels the notion that we are dependent upon fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) for fuels, plastics and chemical feed-stocks in industry.

Fourth, OTHER IDEAS, like recommended reading.

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