Eric S. Hintz is a historian with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Eric develops exhibitions and public programming; coordinates the Center’s fellowship and grant programs; and assists in the collection of historically significant artifacts and documents.
Eric’s research interests include the history of science and technology and US business and economic history; he specializes in the history of invention and R&D. He is the author of American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D (MIT Press, 2021) and co-editor of Does America Need More Innovators? (MIT Press, 2019). He has discussed his work on MSNBC and National Public Radio; his publications have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Technology & Culture, the Business History Review, Enterprise and Society, Research-Technology Management, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, various edited collections, and the Lemelson Center blog. He is the recipient of the Samuel Eleazar and Rose Tartakow Levinson Prize from the Society for the History of Technology (2007) and the K. Austin Kerr Prize from the Business History Conference (2007).
Eric has served as a co-curator on several exhibitions, including Places of Invention, winner of the inaugural Smithsonian Excellence in Exhibitions Award (2017) and the Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits from the Society for the History of Technology (2016); My Computing Device; American Enterprise; and HIV and AIDS Thirty Years Ago. With his colleagues, he is developing The Electric Dr. Franklin (expected 2022) and Game Changers (expected 2023). Eric also contributes to the Center’s public programs and produces its annual symposium series, New Perspectives on Invention and Innovation; recent highlights include Black Inventors and Innovators: New Perspectives (2020) and Religion and Innovation (2019).
Eric earned his BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame, then worked in Silicon Valley as a technology consultant for Accenture, a leading services firm. After leaving the corporate world, he taught both science and history at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory High School in San Francisco, then completed his MA and PhD in the history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center in 2010.
Twitter: @EricSHintz
Eric’s NMAH staff page: https://americanhistory.si.edu/profile/422
Curriculum Vitae: EricSHintz_CV_June2021.pdf
