Skip to main content
  • Main menu
Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation
  • Home
  • Tags
  • Toys and games

Toys and games

Filter By
  • All
  • Video & Interactive
  • Text
  • Audio
Found 52 Stories
Informal pose of Tahira Reid Smith, arms folded
Blog

Game Changers Inventor Spotlight: Tahira Reid Smith

Engineering professor Dr. Tahira Reid Smith has been inventive since childhood and is best known for her automated double-Dutch jump rope machine.

A young woman playing Pandemic
Blog

Disaster Board Games

Board game inventions can help us cope with crises.

Figure 1 from John Lloyd Wright’s US Patent 1,351,086 for “Toy Cabin Construction,” dated August 31, 1920. The pen-and-ink figure shows a log cabin with a door and two windows.
Blog

Lincoln Logs Inventor John Lloyd Wright

Yes, this popular childhood toy was designed by none other than the son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright!

Close-up of a small servo motor labeled MG996R Digihi Torque
Blog

Radio-Controlled Cars Were My Robots

Tinkering with RC cars was my gateway to STEM.

Cover of book Awesome Dawson by Chris Gall
Blog

Inventive Summer Reading for Kids

Summer's here and the reading is . . . inventive!

Lonnie Johnson with Super Soaker and Nerf toys
Blog

Meet Lonnie Johnson, the Man Behind the Super Soaker

Get to know engineer Lonnie Johnson, founder and president of Johnson Research and Development Co., who invented the wildly-popular Super Soaker water gun, worked on high-performance Nerf dart guns, and focuses today on inventions related to clean energy.

Yellow plastic hard hat with solar-powered propeller on top, souvenir from, Knoxville World’s Fair, 1982
Invention Stories

Inventive Minds: Inventing Green

Inventive Minds: Inventing Green features the stories of historic and contemporary inventors whose work on socially-responsible technologies creates profound change for the common good.

Fish toys invented by Jerome Lemelson
Invention Stories

Jerome Lemelson: Toying with Invention

One of the most interesting things about Jerome Lemelson’s toy patents is the way in which they parallel interests that he was pursuing in other fields.

Nintendo Power Glove
Invention Stories

Success Born of Failure: The Nintendo Power Glove

The Power Glove may have been a huge flop, but it was a failure that resulted in several successful inventions.

Elizabeth Magie Phillips, inventor of "The Landlord's Game," a precursor to "Monopoly"
Invention Stories

The Woman Inventor Behind “Monopoly”

The invention process can be messy. Case in point: the invention of "Monopoly."

Notes on the Odyssey Controller
Invention Stories

Playing Games on the Job

Playing vintage video games must fit under the “other duties as assigned” part of my job description.

Ralph Baer plays his Telesketch game, 1977.
Invention Stories

Ralph Baer: The Inventor I Knew

Director Art Molella reflects on his friendship with "the father of video games," the late Ralph Baer.

Lunch box featuring G.I. Joe, from the collections at the National Museum of American History
Invention Stories

G.I. Joe Turns 50!

G.I. Joe, born during the height of the Cold War, has become one of the most successful and well-known action figures.

Ralph Baer plays his Telesketch game, 1977.
Invention Stories

Remembering Ralph Baer

The Lemelson Center notes with great sadness the passing of our friend Ralph Baer on 6 December 2014. Now considered the “father of video games,” Ralph shared the following cautionary tale in 2008, attesting to the potential fragility of the independent inventor's legacy.

Hungarian stamp honoring the invention of the Rubik's cube. Features image of hands manipulating the toy with a stopwatch in the background.
Invention Stories

A Twist of Fate: The Invention of the Rubik’s Cube

Forty years ago, Ernő Rubik thought up the idea for the Rubik’s Cube in order to help teach three-dimensional design to his students. Today the number of Rubik’s Cubes sold worldwide is estimated at about 350 million.

Encouraging Innovative Thinking

Does Play Matter?

Play in American culture

DO Try This at Home!

Build a LEGO Light Bulb

Detailed instructions included!

Musical group 8 Bit Weapon
Beyond Words

Podcast: Extra: GameFest!

Watch musical group 8 Bit Weapon demonstrate their skills in using video game chips and systems to make live music.

Ralph Baer
Beyond Words

Video: Inventor of the Home Video Game, Ralph Baer in Spark!Lab

Inventor of the home video game, Ralph Baer and his co-worker Bill Harrison reenact their original ping pong game on a replica of his "brown box" video game system. This event took place in Spark!Lab to celebrate National Inventors Month.

Beyond Words

Podcast: A Puzzling Look at Invention with Peter Winkler

There's more to puzzles than jigsaws and Erno Rubik.

See More Stories

VIEW 2718 Matching Results

Found 2718 Stories

  • Agriculture and horticulture (Relevance: 5.224429727741%)
  • Air and space (Relevance: 6.7696835908756%)
  • Archives@NMAH (Relevance: 8.4253127299485%)
  • Chemistry (Relevance: 3.0905077262693%)
  • Food and drink (Relevance: 3.2376747608536%)
  • Industry and manufacturing (Relevance: 7.542310522443%)
  • Medicine, health, and life sciences (Relevance: 4.5989698307579%)
  • Military technology (Relevance: 3.3480500367918%)
  • Mining and drilling (Relevance: 3.4216335540839%)
  • Patents and trademarks (Relevance: 11.40544518028%)
  • Photography, film, television, and video (Relevance: 3.8631346578366%)
  • Power generation, motors, and engines (Relevance: 3.4584253127299%)
  • Spark!Lab (Relevance: 3.5320088300221%)
  • Textiles and clothing (Relevance: 3.3848417954378%)
  • Transportation (Relevance: 5.9970566593083%)
  • Women inventors (Relevance: 3.2376747608536%)
❯
Go to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History website

About Menu

▼
Open menu
▲
Close menu
  • Explore
    • Blog
    • Invention Stories
    • Places of Invention
    • Beyond Words
  • Study
    • Research Opportunities
    • Archives
    • Lemelson Center Books
    • Lemelson Center Research
    • Symposia & Conferences
  • Try
    • DO Try This at Home!
    • Spark!Lab
    • Spark!Lab Network
    • Encouraging Innovative Thinking
  • About
    • Events
    • Exhibitions
    • News
    • Who We Are
    • FAQ
    • Donate
  • Multimedia
  • Tags
  • Surprise Me
  • Search
  • Open Drawer
Copyright 2022, Smithsonian Institution, All Rights Reserved
  • DONATE
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
Twitter Facebook Tumblr Email Print