The Scout Report came out early for Thanksgiving and includes a link to Inventing a Better Mousetrap: Patent Models from the Rothschild Collection, an online exhibit from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibit was sponsored by two IP law firms: Harness, Dickey and Pierce and Niro, Haller and Niro.
Alan Rothschild’s collection is the world’s largest private collection of American patent models and does include a mousetrap. The website links to a conversation with Mr. Rothschild from December 2011 and to a slideshow and Flickr gallery of the models.