WILMINGTON, Delaware — Hagley Museum and Library now has the world’s largest private collection of patent models, second only to that of the Smithsonian Institution, after it acquired more than 4,000 models from the Rothschild Collection.

The acquisition brings the Hagley’s collection to 4,971.

Patent models are small three-dimensional prototypes created to accompany a patent application.

Approximately 100 of the one-of-a-kind patent models, which range from an apparatus for drying cloth and a variety of gears to a brass artificial leg, are currently on display in the Copeland Room in the Hagley Library.

Plans are underway to organize a full-scale display in the visitor center.

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