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Reviewed by:
  • Places of Invention
  • Allison Marsh (bio)
Places of Invention
National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.

How do you explore the concept of invention in a museum exhibit? Most museums used to have rows of display cases featuring a chronology of inventions that perpetuate the stereotype of the lone inventor genius. Instead, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History has started to focus on collaborative efforts, social context, and even the diversity of ideas that can be considered invention. Building on its successful exhibit Invention at Play, the staff of the Lemelson Center have curated a new exhibition that explores the concept of location as a factor in promoting innovation.

Places of Invention, curated by Joyce Bedi, Laurel Fritzsch Bellman, Eric Hintz, and Monica Smith, with exhibit design by Roto, is the Dibner Award–winning 3,300-square-foot exhibition that opened 1 July 2015, as part of the new Innovation Wing of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Developed by historians at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, the exhibit builds on decades of work to ask whether there is something unique about place that allows creativity to flourish (fig. 1).

In preparation for this review, I received a private tour from Eric Hintz when the museum was closed to the public. I also toured it with my ten-year-old nephew during normal opening times and interviewed curators Joyce Bedi and Monica Smith. Moreover, I read the companion book of the same name (reviewed elsewhere in this journal) and spent time exploring the Lemelson Center’s website.

The exhibit employs a hub-and-spoke design with unobstructed sightlines across the space. The Hub is a gathering place where visitors can sit to talk or read about the role a collective meeting spot has in creating a culture of innovation. The mismatch of eclectic chairs may remind you of your local coffee shop, but the design is actually more intentional. Each of [End Page 856] the various styles of chairs represents a key social meeting from one of the case studies in the exhibit. It is one of the many ways the design firm, Roto, reinforced the message of the exhibit content through its physical design. The Hub also has an interactive map where visitors can add any invention from anyplace in the world.


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Fig. 1.

Places of Invention entryway. (Source: Smithsonian photo by Chris Gauthier.)

The six spokes coming off of the Hub represent specific times and places of invention. Arranged counterclockwise, they show: the development of the personal computer in Silicon Valley, California, in the 1970s and ’80s; the birth of hip-hop in the Bronx, New York, in the 1970s (fig. 2); cardiac innovations in Medical Alley, Minnesota, in the 1950s; precision manufacturing in Hartford, Connecticut, in the late 1800s; breakthroughs in motion picture technology in Hollywood, California, in the 1930s; and clean energy innovations in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the 2010s. Because it is not organized chronologically or geographically and each place is a self-contained story, visitors can wander through the exhibit in any order at their leisure.

It would be a mistake to think that the exhibit is confined by its physical footprint. In fact, the exhibit is just the starting point for a globally accessible network fostering two key messages the Lemelson Center has been promoting for decades: (1) invention is a process, and (2) innovation is happening everywhere. This message is expanded on in the companion book and personalized through public programing. Because the exhibit team partnered with twelve affiliate museums across the United States, the message resonates and spurs reflection in local communities. [End Page 857]

In many ways, the concept of place and innovation is an esoteric intellectual idea that the curators are attempting to render in exhibit form. Although research always informs an exhibit, curators also have to think about how the museum visitor will react to the content. Places of Invention employs layering and repetition to reinforce the basic message that invention is happening all around you. The curators use multimedia, text, and objects, each telling a piece of...

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