The National Museum of American History contains many stories of innovation—and innovative things—that reflect the American peoples' insatiable desire for game-changing ideas and new ways of doing things. From this page, you can discover resources online and in the Museum that tell some of these stories.
Explore Innovation at the National Museum of American History
New exhibitions, hands-on learning spaces, programs, and performances offer visitors multiple ways to explore stories of forward-looking innovations—innovations that are key to understanding the spirit of optimism that is such an important part of American history.
Also, learn more about this topic from the Museum's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
2015 Events - Year of Innovation
America's Listening
The museum's new wing themed on American Culture begins in the Ray Dolby Gateway to Culture with America's Listening, which tells the story of recorded sound and five of the innovations that contributed to how we consume music and movies today.
American Enterprise
American Enterprise chronicles the tumultuous interaction of capitalism and democracy that resulted in the continual remaking of American business—and American life.
Art in Industry
Art in Industry looks back at a time when Americans embraced artistic skills as a way to build a consumer-oriented industrial economy.
Inventing in America
The theme of American innovation, highlighted throughout the first floor of the Museum's West Wing, begins in the gateway area which leads to the new wing. Inventing in America, a collaboration with the U.S.
See more exhibitions
Solidarity / Diversity / Innovation
HandOff Software Innovations Button, Say No To Application Not Found
Patent Model for an Apparatus for Raising Submerged Vessels, 1842
Minneapolis-Honeywell T852 Electric Clock Thermostat
See more from our collections
What did 1889 sound like?
Spoiler alert: Answering this question involves the top of the Eiffel Tower and flying in a balloon.
"10 Free Hours!" Marketing and the World Wide Web in the 1990s
It's 1998. Turn off your Backstreet Boys CD, put on some Cucumber Melon body spray, go to the mailbox and what do you see: 10 hours of AOL. Free!