What are Venetian Blinds?

Venetian blinds remained highly popular even in the British Colonised America, with claimed usage as early as 1761 in St. Peter’s Church, Philadelphia. Numerous paintings and illustrations from the 1700s, including when the Declaration of Independence was signed, show Venetian blinds on windows.

Finally patented (twice) by 1796, Venetian Blinds remained barely changed, until a patent from 1841 By John Hampson of New Orleans, a well-known railroad engineer and mayor of Carrollton, Louisiana. 
Hampson’s design enabled Venetian Blinds to remain stable and to be tilted, creating the modern versions we see today. 
Venetian blinds continued to soar in popularity, with many government buildings adopting them - even the Empire State building used them to adorn windows!  Since then they have continuously grown as popular window coverings.
 
There are four main variations of Venetian Blinds, Wood Venetians, Metal Venetians, Shutter Venetian Blinds and the younger Faux Wood Venetian blinds.