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Beyond Words

Tired of text? Browse our audio, video, and visual offerings and see invention in a whole new way.

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Hamilton playing tennis in a wheelchair
Beyond Words

Innovative Lives: Quickie Wheelchair Inventor Marilyn Hamilton

Marilyn Hamilton, co-inventor of the Quickie wheelchair, speaks about her life as an athlete and inventor.

Profile of Dorothy Lemelson smiling
Beyond Words

Remembering Dorothy Lemelson

Dorothy Lemelson was the guiding spirit of the Lemelson Center since its founding in 1995.

Hinda Miller and Lisa Lindahl wearing Jogbras running
Beyond Words

Inventive Minds: Inventors of the Sports Bra

Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, and Polly Palmer Smith invented the now-ubiquitous sports bra in the 1970s.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar signing his book for a young boy
Beyond Words

Innovative Lives: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also writes books about invention for kids.

Block print in black and white, showing stylized tree, river, house, sun, and clouds
Beyond Words

Inventing Green: Inventor Profiles

Contemporary inventors in diverse fields are committed to "inventing green." Here are a few of their stories . . .

U-Sketch pick your color green orange blue lavender purple black

Story Tags

  • African American inventors (Relevance: 37.5%)
  • Air and space (Relevance: 31.25%)
  • Art (Relevance: 37.5%)
  • Assistive technology (Relevance: 25%)
  • Computers (Relevance: 31.25%)
  • Electric light and power (Relevance: 31.25%)
  • Environment (Relevance: 50%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 43.75%)
  • Game Changers exhibition (Relevance: 31.25%)
  • Innoskate (Relevance: 31.25%)
  • Invention at Play (Relevance: 25%)
  • Invention process (Relevance: 25%)
  • Legendary inventors (Relevance: 50%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 75%)
  • Music (Relevance: 43.75%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 43.75%)
  • Places of Invention (Relevance: 43.75%)
  • Play (Relevance: 31.25%)
  • Robotics (Relevance: 43.75%)
  • Sports (Relevance: 56.25%)
  • Women inventors (Relevance: 100%)
Logo for Military Invention Day showing a stylized head in profile with simple drawings of gears and many inventions trailing from the back of the head
Beyond Words

Military Invention Day 2017 Highlights

Missed Military Invention Day 2017? Here are some highlights from this great festival—mark your calendars for 2018!

Lonnie Johnson holding a Super Soaker and standing in front of a table covered with his other toy inventions
Beyond Words

Innovative Lives: Lonnie Johnson

Dr. Lonnie Johnson has devoted his life to solving some of the world’s most complex technological problems.

Image of Sarah Kate Gillespie signing books
Beyond Words

Video Lecture: The Early American Daguerreotype

Author and former Lemelson Center fellow Sarah Kate Gillespie discusses her new book on the history of the daguerreotype.

Casey Cater gives a lecture
Beyond Words

Video Lecture: Race, Class, and Hydroelectricity in Progressive Era Georgia

Casey Cater, Lemelson Center Fellow and Ph.D. candidate at Georgia State, discusses how electric energy was marketed and sold in the post-war south.

2015 Lemelson Fellow Stephen B. Adams
Beyond Words

Video Lecture: Before the Garage: Beginnings of Silicon Valley, 1909–1960

Stephen Adams, Lemelson Center Fellow and Professor at Salisbury University examines the origins of the Silicon Valley as we know it today.

2015 Lemelson Fellow Gerardo Con Diaz
Beyond Words

Video Lecture: Intellectual Property and Hobby Software in the 1970s

Gerardo Con Diaz, Lemelson Center Fellow and PhD. candidate at Yale University, discusses his dissertation, "Intellectual Property and Hobby Software in the 1970s."

Fellow Rachel Gross presents her research during a museum colloquium
Beyond Words

Lecture: Wear a Hat to Keep Your Feet Warm, and Other Lessons from the Science of Dressing for Extreme Weather During World War II

Lemelson Center Fellow Rachel Gross, a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses how Americans paradoxically invented and relied upon all kinds of high-tech inventions to escape the modern world and get “back to nature.”

Beyond Words

Video: From Child Scientist to Playful Inventor

What does children’s play have to do with the work of serious scientists?

Beyond Words

Video: Play to the Future

Is the quality and quantity of children’s play changing? How do new electronic and digital technologies affect children at play? How can new technologies provide rich motor and sensory experiences? If play is changing, how will that affect invention?

Beyond Words

Video: All Work and No Play?

Is it important for adults to make time to play? How do work, play, creativity and productivity relate to each other? When is the last time you played?

Beyond Words

Video: Play for Play's Sake (How Do You Describe Play?)

Does play serve a purpose or is the point of play to have no purpose?

Beyond Words

Video: Edison's Tinfoil Phonograph Reenactment

See a reenactment of Thomas Edison's first recording of sound, from the Lemelson Center's celebration of Edison's 150th birthday.

Patti McGee and Di Dootson Rose at Innoskate 2013
Beyond Words

Podcast: Patti McGee and Di Dootson Rose, Pioneering Skateboarders

Patti McGee and Di Dootson Rose talk about their lives as women skateboarders and offer some insight on skateboarding's place in American culture.

Jacob Rosenberg
Beyond Words

Podcast: Jacob Rosenberg Turns the Camera on Skateboarders

Jacob Rosenberg explores the skate world through his films.

W. Bernard Carlson
Beyond Words

Podcast: W. Bernard Carlson Traces the Arc of Nikola Tesla's Electric Life, Part 2 (of 2)

The author of a new biography on Nikola Tesla offers insights into the legendary inventor's processes.

See More Stories

VIEW 2736 Matching Results

Found 2736 Stories

  • Agriculture and horticulture (Relevance: 5.1900584795322%)
  • Air and space (Relevance: 6.7616959064327%)
  • Archives@NMAH (Relevance: 8.406432748538%)
  • Chemistry (Relevance: 3.0701754385965%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 3.2894736842105%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 7.5292397660819%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 4.5687134502924%)
  • Military technology (Relevance: 3.3260233918129%)
  • Mining and drilling (Relevance: 3.3991228070175%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 11.330409356725%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 3.874269005848%)
  • Power generation, motors, and engines (Relevance: 3.4356725146199%)
  • Spark!Lab (Relevance: 3.5818713450292%)
  • Textiles and clothing (Relevance: 3.3625730994152%)
  • Transportation (Relevance: 5.9576023391813%)
  • Women inventors (Relevance: 3.3991228070175%)
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