One of the most common wires, Glidden's Winner, is named for barbed wire's inventor, Joseph Glidden, and the 1874 court case in which he successfully defended his patent. Barbed wire's glory days were ...

Drive down just about any country road and you’ll see it. You may have never thought it would be worthy of a large museum, but then again, you probably never imagined this had such a long and storied ...

Few inventions that were designed in the 1870s that have not changed since they were patented, and they are still widely used in the 21st century. Barbed wire is an innovation that fits this category, ...

It’s ugly, dangerous and destructive. In its time, it was heralded as one of history’s great inventions. In the 1870s, barbed wire fencing was advertised as “The Greatest Discovery of the Age.” Joseph ...

Glidden was an American farmer originally from Charlestown, New Hampshire. After growing up in Clarendon, New York, and finishing school, he returned to his father’s farm to work, according to ...

When Frank Lorenti of Minturn, a rustic little burg down the road from the villageopolis of Vail in the Colorado mountains, put barbed wire up to keep snowmobilers off his property last winter, the ...

In 1904, the El Paso Herald called for “a barb wire fence along our side of the Rio Grande” to keep out “undesirable aliens.” The newspaper wasn’t referring to Mexicans, but to Chinese immigrants, ...

Visitors to Fort McCoy are used to the sight of barbed wire. It sits atop the fences surrounding the cantonment area and other areas around the installation. It is used during training exercises today ...