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DO Try This at Home!

Create Your Own Cardboard Gramophone

The Gramophone is an early device created to reproduce sound recordings and was invented by a German-born American inventor named Emil Berliner. Learn how you can make your very own gramophone using objects from around your home with this great Spark!Lab activity!

Historical view of the Capitol and the National Mall
Places of Invention

Invention Hot Spot: Growth of the Scientific Community in Washington, DC, in the Late 1800s

The nation's capital, home of the US Patent Office and the Smithsonian Institution, became an important invention center after the Civil War.

A photo of Edgerton's lab at MIT
Places of Invention

MIT in World War II: A Hot Spot of Invention

Places of Invention tells the stories of historic and modern communities where people, resources, and spaces have come together to spark inventiveness.

An early pacemaker
Places of Invention

Invention hot spot: The rise of "Medical Alley" in Minnesota in the 1950s–1970s

Places of Invention tells the stories of historic and modern communities where people, resources, and spaces have come together to spark inventiveness.

Breakdancing in the Bronx
Places of Invention

Invention Hot Spot: Birth of Hip-Hop in the Bronx, New York, in the 1970s

Hip-hop artists and their fans pursued joy and self-expression despite the dire realities of their surroundings.

Prototypes of several batteries invented by Amy Prieto are displayed on a vertical black wooden board
Places of Invention

Invention hot spot: Green energy in Fort Collins, Colorado, today

Places of Invention tells the stories of historic and modern communities where people, resources, and spaces have come together to spark inventiveness.

Entrance to the Places of Invention exhibition
Places of Invention

Places of Invention Exhibition Overview

Places of Invention takes visitors on a journey through time and place to meet people who lived, worked, played, collaborated, adapted, took risks, solved problems, and sometimes failed—all in the pursuit of something new.

Places of Invention

And We’re Off! Launching the “Places of Invention” Affiliate Pilot Project

Six Smithsonian Affiliate museums and their community partners participated in a kick-off workshop with the Lemelson Center

Places of Invention

Revolutionary Invention: Hip-Hop and the PC

What do hip-hop music and personal computers have in common? They were both children of the turbulent 1970s, born to innovative people who, building on inventive skills and technologies, nurtured them through creativity, collaboration, risk taking, problem solving, flexibility, and hard work.

"Springfield Bicycle Club—Bicycle Camp—Exhibition and Tournament, Springfield, Mass, U.S.A., Sept. 18, 19, 20, 1883." Color lithograph by Milton Bradley and Co., Springfield, Massachusetts.
Places of Invention

On the Road with Smithsonian Affiliations: Places of Invention in Western Massachusetts

While on a trip through Western Massachusetts, Jennifer was excited to experience the truth of the Lemelson Center’s assertion that, while they have chosen historic and contemporary examples for their exhibition, invention can happen anywhere.

Rendering of the Bronx section of Places of Invention
Places of Invention

Academic Hip-Hop

Both insiders and outsiders contribute valuable perspective to courses on hip-hop music taught at colleges and universities.

A woman rides a bike in Fort Collins CO
Places of Invention

Fort Collins, a Place of Invention

Going behind the scenes at Colorado State University's Engines and Energy Conversion Lab.

Chuck Popenoe
Lemelson Center Research

Documenting Invention: Understanding Inventors' Spaces

An exploration of best practices for documenting the labs, workshops, and creative spaces of America’s inventors

Chuck Popenoe in his basement workshop
Places of Invention

A Basement Workshop . . . and So Much More

Chuck Popenoe, inventor of the SmartBolt, gave us a tour of his special space of invention.

Grandmaster Flash with his Ghetto Blaster boom box
Invention Stories

Hip-Hop and African American Innovation

The creation of heroes has been important for American society. Heroes help define what it means to be an American, produce narratives about our collective historical past, stabilize our cultural surroundings, and represent the best of what we want our culture to be.

Diagram of a qanat, or water tunnel, used with a wind tower for cooling
Invention Stories

Notes from the Director: Back to the Eco-Future!

So many of the sustainable environmental technologies of today hold promise but are distinctly futuristic--from nanotechnology-based photovoltaics and engineered biofuels to a full-blown vision of the hydrogen economy.

Prototype of the first computer mouse
Places of Invention

Invention Hot Spot: Silicon Valley and the Beginnings of the Computer Revolution in the 1970s

Places of Invention tells the stories of historic and modern communities where people, resources, and spaces have come together to spark inventiveness.

Lemelson Lightbulb Graphic Identity
Symposia & Conferences

The Inventor and the Innovative Society

New Perspectives on Invention and Innovation

Invention Stories

Innovative Lives: The Right To Sight: Patricia Bath

Trailblazer Dr. Patricia Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe for the treatment of cataracts and continues to passionately fight for the prevention, treatment, and cure of blindness.

Inventor George Carruthers in a clean room with others in lab gear
Invention Stories

Innovative Lives: George Carruthers, Lunar Learning

Astrophysicist George Carruthers got his start building a telescope when he was ten years old. Eventually, astronauts used his invention to take ultraviolet pictures of Earth from space for the first time.

See More Stories

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