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Profile profile for bedij

Research Specialties: 

History of invention, history of photography, new media

Role in Museum: 

Lead co-editor of Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation book series published with MIT Press; historical research and writing; managing the Lemelson Center website; developing exhibitions.

Projects: 

Exhibitions at the National Museum of American History:

  • Inventive Minds: Women Inventors (2018-2019)
  • Inventive Minds: Sporting Inventions (2017-2018)
  • Inventive Minds: Inventing Green (2016-2017)
  • Solar on the Line (2016-2018)
  • Places of Invention (2015-)
  • Inventive Minds: Everyone Is Inventive (2015-2016)
  • Hot Spots of Invention showcase exhibit (2009-2012)
  • Toying with Invention (2008–2012)
  • Sporting Invention showcase exhibit (2008–2009, 1999-2001)
  • The Inventive Side of Nobel showcase exhibit (2001-2002)
  • Nobel Voices: Celebrating 100 Years of the Nobel Prize (2001)
  • Who Invented the Environment? showcase exhibit (1999)
  • The Colors of Invention showcase exhibit (1997-1998)
  • Everyday Inventions showcase exhibit (1995-1997)

Exhibitions at other museums:

  • Flashes of Inspiration: The Work of Harold Edgerton, MIT Museum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1998-2008)
  • Never Stop Learning: The Life and Legacy of Harold Edgerton, Strobe Alley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1997-ongoing)
  • Hugging Red Hannah: Corporal Punishment in New Castle, New Castle (Del.) Historical Society, (1991-1992)
  • From Inventor to Scientist: Elihu Thomson, 1885-1910, Swampscott (Mass.) Administration Building (1986-1987)
  • Edison after the Electric Light: The Challenge of Success traveling exhibition, National Museum of American History, (1986-1989)
Professional Affiliations: 
Society for the History of Technology

Blog Posts

Technicolor sets the scene October 10, 2012
Squishy gunk in tubes March 2, 2011
Tools never die...do they? February 3, 2011

Publications

“Ralph Baer: An Interactive Life.” Human Behavior & Emerging Technologies 1, no. 1 (January 2019), 18–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.119
"Life on Display: Revolutionizing U.S. Museums of Science and Natural History in the Twentieth Century by Karen A. Rader, Victoria E. M. Cain (review)." Technology and Culture 59, no. 1, January 2018, 168-169. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2018.0011
"Movies Meet the Rainbow." In Blaszczyk, Regina L. and Spiekermann, Uwe (eds.) Bright Modernity: Color, Commerce, and Consumer Culture. Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017:133-148.

An overview of the invention of Technicolor.

"Hollywood, California (1930s)" and "Fort Collins, Colorado (2010s)." In Molella, Arthur and Karvellas, Anna (eds.), Places of Invention. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2015, 156–201.

Companion book to the Places of Invention exhibition.

Inventing for the Environment. Co-edited with Arthur Molella. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003.

An anthology of essays on the role of invention in mitigating environmental issues.