Forerunner: Engineering and Industry Museum

The 1920s were a time of revolutionary technological change. Airplanes, automobiles, radio, and telephones—all these and more were transforming everyday life. People felt pulled into a modern world, heading for the future at breakneck speed.

Carl Mitman, visionary technology curator in the Smithsonian’s Anthropology department, saw the importance of documenting these changes, and complained bitterly about lacking the resources needed to update his displays. For years he had dreamed of shaking off the dust of the Arts and Industries Building and establishing a dedicated technology museum.

Appealing to national pride, Mitman campaigned to bring the Smithsonian into the new age of progress. He proposed a “Museum of Engineering and Industry” that would rival the great industrial museums of Europe. Though a number of science museums were successfully launched in America in this period Mitman’s project failed for lack of money, but was revived after World War II.