Innovation

Black and white photo of Riker electric automobile parked outside. 
Will electric cars help save the environment? 
General Motors EV1 electric car, 1997 (2005.0061.01)A Smithsonian magazine reader asked a seemingly simple question: Does building electric...
A top-down view of the Magnavox controller showing off its faux-wood paneling, three dials, and instruction text: English, Horizontal, Reset, and Vertical. A thick beige cable is wrapped around the controller's base.
The Magnavox Odyssey predicted the future of video games
In September 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey appeared in American Magnavox stores, making it the first video game console that could be played...
Sponges of diverse shapes and colors arranged in a line
Rea Ann Silva: The woman behind Beautyblender
While the iconic egg-shaped Beautyblender sponge is wildly popular and used by makeup professionals and everyday people from all...
A group of people by what appears to be a hot-air balloon.
What did 1889 sound like?
Q: What’s cylindrical, made of wax, and part of one of history’s great showdowns?A: These records in the museum collection with audio...
"10 Free Hours!" Marketing and the World Wide Web in the 1990s
Remember these?Getting free stuff in the mail can be exciting, especially if the stuff that’s free is new and novel. On the other hand, it...
White celluloid collar on black background
A white collar with a message
Men’s celluloid collar, 1900sAt first glance, this collar from the 1800s might not look like much. A closer inspection shows that this...
"Green Egg" GPS Receiver
The crop of the 21st century
"Information is your new crop!" proclaimed John Deere's brochure, announcing the company's newly launched GreenStar Precision Farming...
Production drawings from Steamboat Willie show Mickey Mouse pulling on a string, tumbling on a bar of soap, and a wheel
Mickey Mouse turns 90
It is hard to believe, but Mickey Mouse is celebrating his 90th birthday this year. For an old mouse, he still looks pretty spry! One of...
A blue robotic arm
Adventures in collecting: Kenneth Salisbury's robot hand
A visitor to Kenneth Salisbury's Stanford University office can't miss the evidence of his life-long fascination with hands.Kenneth...
A red box shaped like a fire house station with a pull handle. The box is decorated with the company logo of Gamewell, complete with a hand gripping bolts of electricity.
“This is 9-1-1. What is your emergency?”: A history of raising the alarm
At 2 p.m. on February 16, 1968, a special red telephone rang at the police station in Haleyville, Alabama. Rather than a police officer, U....
Image of what looks like a cell phone with one of its panels removed so that insides are visible.
Smart phones: Collecting an electronic montage
New inventions always build on inventions of the past—and sometimes more than one. Few devices demonstrate that more clearly than...
Photograph of the opening of the New York City subway system. Courtesy of the New York Public Library.
A seven-year struggle to build New York's subway
William Steinway's diary resides in the National Museum of American History's Archives Center as part of the Steinway and Sons...
Rectangular cardboard box labeled "Rabies Vaccine (Duck Embryo)" in a printed label. It is half open. Inside, vials with liquid are visible.
Sneaky 1960s rabies prevention inventions
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
Three amber-colored bottles that resemble upside down bells with handles. They have yellowed labels on them.
An-tee-bodies: T-shirts in celebration of the antibody
Antibodies are always looking out for us, and this week we're taking a closer look at them. Antibody-based tests, vaccines, and drugs have...
(Zoom/Detail) Black and white photo of a woman on a stage. On stage are six fridges, two lamps, and a big banner that says "REA." On a table on the floor in front of the stage, a lamp. There are decorative tassels.
Now you're cooking with electricity!
Before Alton Brown, Rachael Ray, and Giada De Laurentiis, there was Louisan Mamer (1910–2005). An early employee of the Rural...
Postcard-sized illustration in color featuring three children. Two little boys light fireworks and play with toy soldiers while a little girl covers her ears and clutches a doll. Text reads "Wishing you a glorious 4th of July" in gold.
When real patriots got Tetanus
"The coming stupendous holocaust, caused by the sky-rocket, the giant fire cracker and the toy pistol, that leaves an annual trail of...
A cubed machine that is beige and brown in color. It has a switch near its base and a plug. Some features protrude from it, including a white piece on the top that has slats in it.
Cutting-edge recent acquisitions sharpen our understanding of food history
One of our favorite food history collecting trips over the last year started with a predicament we are all familiar with—the frustration of...
A contraption that appears to be made of translucent plastic, silver metal, and some sort of white cloth. It looks a bit like a gyroscope or a toy "top".
Heart valves galore, to Tin Man's delight
In The Wizard of Oz, Tin Man longs for a heart. That's a problem Manuel "Manny" Villafaña has rarely had—he has collected pieces of many...
Early television in wooden piece of furniture
Pay attention to the man on the television screen!
Update: Thanks to you, our Kickstarter campaign to "Keep Them Ruby" was a success and we have the support we need to conserve and display...
Small, handmade car designed from cardboard pieces in red, white, and brown.
Frankenstrats and families: Inspiring family engagement in our "Draper Spark!Lab"
Rolling across the Potomac on any given Sunday morning in the late 1990s, you could probably find a white Volvo with my dad driving my...
Patent with black and white illustration
Inventing for the public good
New posters around the museum remind us as we come to work each morning that our theme this year is "America Participates." This...
1870s Remington typewriter, black with detailed flowers and patriotic emblems painted on it
Type-O-Rama: What do typewriters reveal about innovation?
The sound of clicking typewriter keys filled the museum's Innovation Wing recently during Type-O-Rama. This event, presented by the ...
Cover of "Recipes for Today" cookbook, with an illustration of a woman wearing a read and white dress and carrying a large bowl of soup
A taste of wartime rationing in 1940s product cookbooks
The Patrick F. Taylor Foundation Object Project team had a variety of reactions, taste-wise, to the 1930s recipes that...
1930s General Electric Monitor Top refrigerator
Not just a cool convenience: How electric refrigeration shaped the "cold chain"
Electric refrigeration motivated Americans to rethink how they purchased, prepared, and stored food when it first took off in the 1930s....
Dennis the Menace with stethoscope and "Less of a Menace" text on button or sticker
Combating infectious disease and slaying the rubella dragon, 1969-1972
Metaphors of war and combat are almost impossible to avoid when describing humankind's struggle to control infectious disease. The war may...
Black and white illustration of woman and girl using machine
The book boom: Early bookbinding inventions
American inventions associated with the book were having a bit of a boom between the 1850s and the 1880s. The number of books published...
Thomas Edison's patent model for improvements to a stock ticker
Learning the lingo of patents and trademarks
The Smithsonian and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are hosting an Innovation Festival at the museum on...
Place setting and tray used by the Kim family to serve Korean food
Standing at the crossroads of innovation and immigration
Entrepreneurial success and innovative spirit can come in many forms, and emerge from innumerable paths. The same can be said for stories...
Black and white photo of building
Part 1: A Philadelphia snapshot from when daguerreotypes were new
Guest blogger Sarah Weatherwax, a photography curator at the Library Company of Philadelphia, brings her expertise to bear on several...
Black and white photo of building surrounded by trees
Part 2: A Philadelphia snapshot from when daguerreotypes were new
Guest blogger Sarah Weatherwax, a photography curator at the Library Company of Philadelphia, brings her expertise to bear on several...
Photo of a concert on the museum's stage
Director John Gray shares the joyful moments and lessons learned in opening a new wing
Now that the first floor of our West Wing is open, I was curious what the head of our museum, Elizabeth MacMillan Director John Gray,...
12 kids who helped a doubting public accept the smallpox vaccine
Each year in August, National Immunization Awareness Month provides an opportunity to highlight the value of immunization across the...
Microscope, bronze in color, on small tripod. Small glass in viewer.
Sea-side microscopy, a favorite 19th century summer hobby
"Whoever at the seaside has not had a microscope and an aquarium has yet to learn what the highest pleasures of the seaside are." So said...
3D model of Mt. Vernon with red roof, white walls, green grass. Many columns and windows.
Please touch the objects: Tactile models and alternative approaches to curation
Curator Dr. Katherine Ott invited students in Dr. Samuel J. Redman's Museum/Historic Site Interpretation Seminar to explore the museum's...
19th Century Spherometer
Spherometers reveal how round is round
You have an object that is curved and you want to know how round it is. How would you measure it? This may seem like a rather strange...
View of Smithsonian Castle, 1863
Part 2: Alexander Graham Bell's capital addresses
Where does creativity reside? The first place we think of is the mind. But what role do surroundings play in the ideas behind invention and...

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