Adam Savage Falls Down the Rabbit Hole of NPS Badges

Published on 5 Jan 2026, 15:00

The National Park Service was founded in 1916, so how is the first badge from 1895? At the National Park Service Museum Conservation Lab, museum curator Casey Oehler walks Adam Savage through a selection of the 240 badges in NPS' collection, and explains how she and her team use an XRF Spectrometer as part of their research and chronicling of each.

National Park Museum Conservation Lab: nps.gov/subjects/hfc/museum-co...
National Park Service: nps.gov/index.htm
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How to Wash a 157-Year-Old Newspaper: youtu.be/P3J-ToojchA
Adam Savage Learns How Noiseless Typewriters Work! youtu.be/lswxgfgV1EA
Restoring a Bald Eagle When Its Feathers Are Illegal: youtu.be/ZQv9Knuj2Tk
More Tested/NPS Videos: youtube.com/watch?v=P3J-Toojch...
Follow the NPS Museum Conservation Lab here: instagram.com/conservation_hfc...

If you'd like to support the work of the NPS museum conservation lab, you can do so -- indirectly -- by visiting national park(s), writing to your representatives about your support for the National Park Service and its museum conservation lab, or donating to the National Park Conservation Association (npca.org/), a nongovernmental nonprofit that supports the NPS' work.

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