2021 Lemelson Center Activities Report

Vision and Mission

Vision

We envision a world in which everyone is inventive and inspired to contribute to innovation.

Mission

The Lemelson Center engages, educates, and empowers the public to participate in technological, economic, and social change. We undertake historical research, develop education initiatives, create exhibitions, and host public programming to advance new perspectives on invention and innovation and to foster interactions between the public and inventors.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Lemelson Center,

A second pandemic year created a challenging working environment for the Lemelson Center team in 2021, but also stimulated new projects and motivated us to expand and deepen our online invention education work. The Lemelson Center team continued to carry out and support research into the diversity of invention and inventors, past and present; advanced exhibition design and content for Game Changers; created new virtual invention activities for young people and those young at heart; and organized a wide variety of Zoom webinars. Among our highlights, I would point to the publication of Eric Hintz’s book, American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D (MIT Press), an exciting season of Innovative Lives programs, some amazing and fun new online invention challenges and activities, reaching the 65% design stage for Game Changers, remarkable uptake of the Picturing Women Inventors poster series created in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service; and an amazing opportunity to run a pop-up Spark!Lab in Doha, Qatar, thanks to a collaboration with the Qatar Foundation and ConocoPhillips. Read more about these projects and other exciting work of the team in this report.

The combination of an ongoing pandemic, new and renewed attention to the failure to include and resource women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) inventors and innovators in the US innovation system, and tradeoffs in privacy, access, and equity associated with changes in technology remain top of mind for many organizations. Inventing for the future isn’t only about envisioning and trying to build hovering skateboards, driverless cars, or currency-less purchasing; it also needs to consider how new technology impacts the dynamics of power between different groups and geographies in the US and internationally, and how to move away from single-use products and greenhouse gas emissions that threaten all of us.

In the coming year, we’re more eager than ever to reopen Draper Spark!Lab to youth visitors even as our invention education team continues to design digital activities and challenges. And excitement is building for the Game Changers exhibition, where we will explore inventive identity through the lens of sporting inventions, and ask every visitor to identify challenges in their own lives and invent solutions!

Arthur Daemmrich, Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Director

Q1 Highlights

2021 Report Layout

The Lemelson Center’s 2021 Activities Report is organized by quarterly highlights. Scroll through to see our most noteworthy accomplishments month-to-month in chronological order.

JANUARY

• Arthur Daemmrich and curators Alexandra Lord and Peter Liebhold organized "Racing for Vaccines," a public program held as part of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) Pandemic Perspectives webinar series.
• Monica Smith gave a presentation to the Peoria Riverfront Museum about the invention of the electric guitar.
• We hosted “25 Years of Innovative Lives,” our first ever online Innovative Lives program, with an all-star panel including Super-Soaker inventor Lonnie Johnson, Nightingale Apps founder Tiffany Kelley, adaptive bicycle inventor Mike Augspurger, and Spark!Lab activity inventor Tim Pula speaking to the ways in which inventing within constraints can lead to breakthrough solutions. The Center’s Monica Smith moderated the panel discussion.
• In partnership with Cricket Media, we launched the 2021 Spark!Lab Dr. InBae & Mrs. Kyung Joo Yoon Invent It Challenge. This year’s challenge: Create an invention that makes sports more exciting, fun, fair, or safe for all.

January web publications:

• "The Supercharged, Super Fast, Novi Engine” by Alison Oswald
• “How Skating Acquired and Lost Its ‘Figure’” by Meg Maher. 

FEBRUARY

• InventED, a consortium of invention education organizations held its annual meeting the first week in February, with several sessions featuring Lemelson Center team members. 
• Nigerian-American inventor and Uncharted Power CEO Jessica Matthews joined us for an Innovative Lives program on February 11 to share how her heritage, educational experiences, and vision for new energy sources combine to drive her inventive process. Matthews, a patent holder whose work is at the intersection of disruptive technology, renewable energy, and human behavior, was interviewed by Monica Smith live on Zoom. 
• Monica Smith and Jeff Brodie presented an overview of the Game Changers (GC) project at a research seminar about sports, technology, and health at the University of Pennsylvania led by GC advisor Professor Andi Johnson. 

February web publications:

• “Signposts to Diverse Stories of Invention” by Peggy A. Kidwell, Curator of Mathematics, NMAH
• “Game Changers Inventor Spotlight: Tahira Reid Smith” by Monica M. Smith

MARCH

• Cindy Yoon and Robert Lemelson spoke to our Innovative Lives audiences about their experiences growing up in invention-centric homes. As independent filmmakers, Yoon and Lemelson shared stories and clips from documentaries each has produced about their impactful inventor-fathers. Lemelson Center Director Arthur Daemmrich moderated the discussion about Jerome Lemelson’s and InBae Yoon’s inventive processes, inspirations, and challenges they overcame. The filmmakers’ also offered their insights on how to document invention itself. 
• Dorothy Lemelson, who played an integral part in creating the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, passed away on March 10, 2021. She is greatly missed by the Lemelson Center team. “Dolly loved being around inventors, considering their work a supremely creative and humanitarian calling. She made the transformative potential of invention feel personal to all of us at the Lemelson Center,” wrote Art Molella, Lemelson Center Director Emeritus, in a memorial piece published on the LC’s website. 
• The poster version of Picturing Women Inventors, a collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), launched successfully, with over 6,000 orders filled as of early 2022! A Picturing Women Inventors Educators guide, developed by our Spark!Lab experts, accompanies each poster order to help facilitate conversations about the posters with students. 

March web publications:

• “The Invention of the Self-Expiring Visitor Badge” by David J. Haas 
• https://invention.si.edu/diverse-voices-women-inventors         
• https://invention.si.edu/diverse-voices-immigrant-inventors  

Q2 Highlights

APRIL

• After a hang-gliding accident in 1978, Marilyn Hamilton worked with two friends to invent a lightweight, east-to-maneuver wheelchair by adapting hang glider materials. They named it “Quickie” and Hamilton used it to win wheelchair tennis championships. During Innovative Lives on April 14, the audience was treated to a special online archivist-led tour of Smithsonian collections related to the program after the discussion between Hamilton and museum curator Katherine Ott. 
• The Center’s education team launched the first lesson plan associated with an online Tinkercad invention activity, “Invent a Device to Move Through a Pipe.” 

April web publications:

• “The Fosbury Flop—A Game-Changing Technique” by Eric S. Hintz 
• “Illustrating ‘The Amateur Scientist’ at Scientific American” by Alison Oswald 
• https://invention.si.edu/remembering-dorothy-lemelson

MAY

• On May 3, Monica Smith gave a talk for the Smithsonian Affiliate Durham Museum’s “Museum Live!” Monday morning history program geared towards elementary school students. Her talk featured Black inventor Garrett A. Morgan and the three-way traffic safety signal he invented that is on display in the exhibition, America On the Move.
• We hosted our final Innovative Lives program of the 2021 series on May 12. Sarah Will, Paralympic skier and accessibility advocate, and Mike Schultz, inventor of the Moto Knee and Versa Foot, joined NMAH sports curator Jane Rogers for an online conversation about their respective careers, shared interests in advocacy for accessible sports, and the history of technology innovations in adaptive skiing and snowboarding. 
• On May 18 we announced a new project to create educational materials about living inventors of color. Inspiring STEM Pathways: Contemporary Black Inventors as Role Models for the Next Generation will see the development of videos that highlight the lives and work of Black inventors in American industries, as well as oral history interviews and the creation of educational materials that build STEM skills among students in grades 6-12. 
• Picturing Women Inventors officially opened to the public on May 21, 2021 as the museum welcomed back visitors. Presented in bold wall murals, with text in English and Spanish, Picturing Women Inventors features historic and contemporary women inventors: women of color, immigrant women, women with disabilities, women from the early 20th century to contemporary women, women of various ages, and women working in engineering, science, sports, household technologies, child care, computing, medicine, and more. The exhibition is part of the Lemelson Center’s larger effort to focus research and outreach on recovering the stories of underrepresented inventors. Picturing Women Inventors is made possible thanks to a collaboration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and with the support of Lyda Hill Philanthropies IF/THEN Initiative and Ericsson. 
• The 10th Annual Spark!Lab Dr. InBae and Mrs. Kyung Joo Yoon Invent It Challenge winners were announced on May 26. This year’s challenge invited students ages 5-21 to become “game-changing” inventors who transform how we play and engage with sports. Young inventors were asked to think creatively about what inventions might make sports more fun, fair, exciting, safe, and accessible to people of all abilities. The eight winners—four individuals and four teams—and 21 honorable mentions were evaluated by a panel of judges from the Smithsonian and Cricket Media. 
• With two new additions, the twelve Spark!Lab Instructables continue to successfully offer learners an online space to be creative and flex their invention muscles! The landing page for our Instructables has reached 30k views and counting. Activities are complete with evaluation components and printable worksheets. Explore the online activities here.

May web publications:

• “The Two Inventors Who Made Airline Travel Safer” by David J. Haas
• “Licensing the First US Patent” by Arthur Daemmrich

JUNE

• Arthur Daemmrich presented, “Licensing the First U.S. Patent: Samuel Hopkins, Eli Cogswell, and the Inventor-Entrepreneur” at the USPTO’s online program series, History’s Hand: Inventor’s Mind, on June 2. 
• Spark!Lab hosted two live ED EXPO digital programs: “Interdisciplinary Invention Challenge–Pivoting from Hands-on to Digital” with Autodesk on June 1, and “Tech + Social Studies LIVE!” on June 6. 
• The Lemelson Center worked with George Mason University’s Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy (C-IP2) to produce a timely webinar titled, “Vaccines, Intellectual Property, and Global Equity” on June 10. The online program featured a brief overview of vaccine history and a virtual tour of relevant objects from the Smithsonian’s collections. A panel discussion comprised of vaccine experts including Arthur Daemmrich, Dan Laster, Arti K. Rai, and Eric Aaronson discussed the ethical, commercial, and global health implications of vaccine patents, guided by moderator Sean O’Connor. 
• Monica Smith was interviewed on June 11 as part of a panel discussion about the invention of the electric guitar for BBC World Service’s radio program, The Forum. The edited episode aired in September 2021.

June web publications:

• https://invention.si.edu/diverse-voices-immigrant-inventors

Q3 Highlights

JULY

• The Lemelson Center recorded oral histories from significant women inventors. The Oral history releases include: Marilyn Hamilton; Tahira Reid; and Jogbra Inventors Lisa Lindahl, Hinda Miller, and Polly Palmer Smith. These videos are supported through grants from the Smithsonian’s Women Committee.

July web publications:

• “Missing the Physical World of Spark!Lab” by Tim Pula 
• “The Invention of the Iconic Vans Skateboarding Shoe” by Meg Maher

AUGUST

• On August 4, historian Eric S. Hintz’s book, American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D, was published in the Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation book series with MIT Press. Focusing on the years from 1890 to 1950, Hintz documents how American independent inventors competed (and sometimes partnered) with their corporate rivals, adopted a variety of flexible commercialization strategies, established a series of short-lived professional groups, lobbied for fairer patent laws, and mobilized for two world wars. By recovering the stories of a group once considered extinct, Hintz shows that independent inventors have long been—and remain—an important source of new technologies. 
• The Center’s report on Black Inventors and Innovators: New Perspectives was published, summarizing a rich set of presentations and discussions on the topic of “Black Inventors and Innovators” during the New Perspectives symposium that took place in November 2020 . The report outlines key findings and action steps that aspire to improve future research, public history, and educational materials.

August web publications:

• “Mother Nature and Invention” by Nyssa Buning
• “The Persistence of American Independent Inventors” by Eric S. Hintz
• https://invention.si.edu/black-inventors-and-innovators-new-perspectives

SEPTEMBER

• On September 30, Spark!Lab online learning labs launched its first bilingual activity. The Shopping Cart Learning Lab is now also available in Spanish. 
• We opened a new Spark!Lab Network site at the Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ. The lab was modeled after NMAH’s Draper Spark!Lab, including exhibition cases, banners with information about local/regional inventors, and connections between activities and museum collections (including a new ‘invent an automaton’ activity). 

September web publications:

• “Bee Hives Buzzing with Invention” by Alison Oswald
• “Equine Identification Inventions” by Kaye Hawkins
• “Welcoming Morris Museum to the Spark!Lab Network” by Nyssa Buning

Q4 Highlights

OCTOBER

• Through September 2021, we worked on the 65% design development phase of the Game Changers (GC) exhibition project, which marked a shift from concept to physical realization. The extended project team of NMAH and Lemelson Center staff, exhibition design firm Roto, identity researchers and educators, evaluators from Randi Korn & Associates, and community partners Access Smithsonian, Girl Scouts of the Nation's Capital, and YMCA-DC, worked together to hone design and interactive elements as curators completed research, selected objects and graphics, and started writing the exhibition script. Feedback from our priority audiences of young women and BIPOC youth ages 10-17 and people with disabilities was incorporated through the process. In October 2021, we moved on to the final design phase that will be completed in 2022.

October web publications:

• https://invention.si.edu/immigration-and-innovation-new-perspectives

NOVEMBER

• From November 1-3, we hosted our annual symposium on New Perspectives in invention and innovation. This year's three-day webinar series, titled Immigration and Innovation: New Perspectives, explored the history, impact, and contemporary experiences of foreign-born inventors in the United States. Our speakers—historians, economists, policymakers, and immigrant inventors—examined the factors that have made the United States an attractive destination for aspiring inventors and the attitudes and mindsets that have driven their success. The webinar also considered how foreign-born inventors have been central to historical and contemporary policy debates concerning immigration innovation, American competitiveness, and national security. 
• Nyssa Buning, Tim Pula, and Emma Grahn presented “The Pivot to Digital Spark!Lab Engagement,” to the Smithsonian Affiliates Conference. 

November web publications:

• “Defeating Pickpockets with Invention” by David J. Haas
• “Recognizing Artificial Intelligence Systems as Inventors” by Arthur Daemmrich 

DECEMBER

• In December 2021, the Lemelson Center collaborated with Qatar Foundation and ConocoPhillips Qatar to develop and host a temporary Spark!Lab installation. Spark!Lab Qatar 2021 included six scheduled school group visits over two days, open drop-in time during evening hours, and a group of about 30 home-schooled youths.

December web publications:

• “Sanitation Engineering Inventions Create a Healthier World” by Alison Oswald  

Facts and Figures

Social Media 

Facebook

• 57 original posts published in 2021
• 796 total engagements 
• 33k individual users reached organically
• 667 individual users reached through paid ads
• 35k impressions gained organically
• 801 impressions gained from paid advertising
• Gained 88 new fans for a total of 2.7k fans

Twitter

• 112 original tweets in 2021
• 294 messages published total
• 783 engagements 
• 62k impressions
• Gained 175 new followers for a total of 4.3k followers

Instagram

• 41 original posts in 2021
• 3,690 engagements
• 12k unique users reached
• 14k total impressions 

Digital Engagement

Digital Program Attendees

• 6 digital programs hosted
• 6,252 total attendees

Tinkercad/Instructables

• 13 total activities
• 34,000 views

Website Visitation

• 742,116 page views

Blog Page

• Approximately 116,000 blog visits

YouTube

• 5,145 views on videos published in 2021

Endowment Revenue

Spending on salary and benefits:

• $1,675,000

Spending on education, fellowships, programs, and public engagement:

• $225,000

All other support: 

• $350,000

SPECIAL THANKS

The Center values collaborating with partners across a broad spectrum of fields. In 2021, we especially acknowledge the following financial supporters and program partners:

Access Smithsonian

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

Autodesk Inc.

The Boardr

ConocoPhillips, Inc.

ConocoPhillips Qatar

Create-A-Skate

ePals and Cricket Media

Ericsson

FAR Academy

Faber-Castell

George Mason University Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP)

Barbara Hiatt, in honor of Father John Scott Holland Museum

David H Horowitz Endowment Fund

Judy and Bob Huret

Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT), Virginia Tech University

Irving Archives and Museum 

The Lemelson Foundation

Lyda Hill Philanthropies IF/THEN Initiative

The MIT Press

Michigan Science Center

Midland Center for the Arts in Midland, MI

Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ

NMAH Office of Audience Engagement

NMAH Office of Building Renovation and Exhibition Services

NMAH Office of Curatorial Affairs

NMAH Office of Management and Museum Services

Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development

Sho Foundation

Smithsonian Institution of Traveling Exhibition Service

Smithsonian Office of Contracting

Smithsonian Office of General Counsel

Smithsonian Office of International Relations

Smithsonian Office of the Provost/Under Secretary of Museums and Research

Smithsonian Office of Sponsored Projects

SportTechie

Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL

USA Skateboarding

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Mary Anne Wassenberg

Kyung Joo H. Yoon and Family

TEAM AND ADVISORY COMMITTEES

TEAM

Arthur Daemmrich, Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Director 

Jeff Brodie, Deputy Director 

Joyce Bedi, Senior Historian and Lead Editor, Lemelson Center Studies book series 

Nyssa Buning, Spark!Lab National Network Coordinator 

Emma Grahn, Museum Program Specialist 

Laura Havel, Public Affairs Specialist 

Kaye Hawkins, Finance and Administration Officer 

Eric S. Hintz, Historian and Fellowship Coordinator 

Meg Maher, Project Curator 

Caroline Morales, Spark!Lab Facilitator  

Alison Oswald, Archivist and Travel-to-Collections Coordinator 

Abigail Phelps, Lead Spark!Lab Facilitator  

Tim Pula, Interpretive Exhibits Inventor 

Monica M. Smith, Associate Director 

LEMELSON CENTER ADVISORY BOARD

Carlotta Arthur, Executive Director, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Academies of Sciences

John Dabbar, Managing Director, Low Carbon Technology, ConocoPhillips

Bill Masters, Founder, Perception Kayaks (retired)

Kevin McGovern, Chairman and CEO, McGovern Capital

Christine Peterson, Stanford Research Institute (retired)

Leonard Polizzotto, Innovation consultant

Christopher Weaver, Distinguished Professor of Computational Media, Wesleyan University 

GAME CHANGERS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Jayatri Das, Chief Bioscientist, The Franklin Institute

Alphonse DeSena

Ray Fouche, Director and Professor, American Studies Program, Purdue University

Josh Friedberg, CEO, USA Skateboarding

Joanna Garner, Executive Director, Center for Educational Partnerships, Old Dominion University

Jay Gladden, Associate Vice Chancellor, Undergraduate Education, IUPUI

Grant Hastings, Vice President, Network Operations, Monumental Sports and Entertainment

Carol Inman

James Japhet, Managing Director, Hawk-Eye North America, Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd.

Andi Johnson, Senior Lecturer, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

Avi Kaplan, Professor, Educational Psychology, Temple University

Dan Kaufman, Managing Director, SportTechie

Randi Korn & Associates, Inc.

Chip Lindsey, Director of Education, Pittsburgh Children’s Museum

Jesse Lovejoy, Director, San Francisco 49ers Museum

Kaarta Maron, Chief of Staff and Director of Marketing and Brand Communications, Windpact

Liz Nugent, Manager, Brand Partnership, Autodesk

Christine Reich, Senior Vice President, Exhibits and Research, Museum of Science, BostonRoto Group LLC

Bram Weinstein, Owner, Ampire Media, and Co-Owner, Reel Media Group

Sarah Will, Paralympic medalist skier and accessibility advocate

Beth Ziebarth, Director, Access Smithsonian 

BAER FUND DONORS

David K. Allison

David Beneman

Arthur Daemmrich

Paul Dilulio

Jay Klusky

Richard Levy

Arthur P. Molella

Paul Quinlan

Kenneth Schaecher

Tommy Tallarico

Chris and Nanci Weaver