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Books in the MIT Press/Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation series enhance public understanding of humanity's inventive impulse.

Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation

September 18, 2019 by Lemelson Center

Books in the interdisciplinary Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation series explore the history of invention and innovation and the work of inventors and the technologies they create.

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Books in the Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation enhance public understanding of humanity's inventive impulse. Authors in the series raise new questions about the work of inventors and the technologies they create, while stimulating cross-disciplinary dialogue. By opening channels of communication between the various disciplines and sectors of society concerned with technological innovation, the Lemelson Center Studies advance scholarship in the history of technology, engineering, science, architecture, the arts, and related fields, and disseminate it to a general interest audience.

The Lemelson Center Studies series is co-edited by Joyce Bedi, Arthur Daemmrich, and Arthur Molella, and published by the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center in association with the MIT Press.

Potential authors are invited to submit book proposals for the series at any time. For further information, contact Joyce Bedi.

The Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation series is supported in part by Barbara Hiatt in honor of Father John Scott, mentor and former President of St. Martin’s University, who had a deep love of American History.​

Books in the Series:

lemcen-books-sullivan-cover-20190329-150-inline-edit.jpg

Handprints on Hubble book cover, showing astronaut Kathy Sullivan looking out the window of the space shuttle.

Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut’s Story of Invention (2019) explores a vital but overlooked chapter in the Hubble Space Telescope’s story—the period from 1984 to 1990 during which she was part of a small band of engineers who turned general notions of on-orbit maintenance into the concrete stuff of the tools, training materials, and procedures.

By Kathyrn D. Sullivan, a former astronaut and the first American woman to walk in space

Available November 2019 from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/handprints-hubble


lemcen-books-does-america-need-more-innovators-cover-150-inline-edit.jpg

The cover of the book, with the title, “Does America Need More Innovators?” in white letters against a dark royal blue background. 3 rectangular “thought bubble” outlines in yellow (upper left), red (center), and white (lower right) overlap beneath the title, and 3 triangular arrows, like a fast forward button, are superimposed across the upper and middle bubbles. “Edited by” is within the yellow bubble and the editors’ names are within the red bubble.

Does America Need More Innovators? (2019) is a critical exploration of today's global imperative to innovate, by champions, critics, and reformers of innovation.

Edited by Matthew Wisnioski, Eric S. Hintz, and Marie Stettler Kleine

Available from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/does-america-need-more-innovators


lemcen-books-gillespie-sarah-kate-cover-150-inline-edit.jpg

Cover of The Early American Daguerreotype: Cross-Currents in Art and Technology, showing a man pouring 2 chemicals into a funnel inserted in a beaker.

The Early American Daguerreotype: Cross-Currents in Art and Technology, by Sarah Kate Gillespie

The Early American Daguerreotype: Cross-Currents in Art and Technology (2016) recounts the activities of the unexpected mix of fine artists, inventors, scientists, and mechanical tinkerers who transformed the daguerreotype into a new  way to see the world.

By Sarah Kate Gillespie

Available from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/early-american-daguerreotype


lemcen-books-blaszczyk-regina-color-revolution-cover-final-9780262017770-150-inline-edit.jpg

Cover of The Color Revolution, showing an illustration of a woman in the middle of a swirl of colorful fabrics

The Color Revolution by Regina Lee Blaszczyk

The Color Revolution (2012) offers a fresh perspective on the myriad ways innovations in color affect our lives, revealing innovators’ interactions with science, industry, and art that influenced consumer choice and business practice.

By Regina Lee Blaszczyk

Available from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/color-revolution


lemcen-books-beyer-kurt-grace-hopper-cover-book-150-inline-edit.jpg

Cover of Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age, showing Grace Hopper seated and holding a cigarette

Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age by Kurt Beyer

Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age (2009) reveals the vibrant, complex, and intriguing woman whose career paralleled the meteoric trajectory of the postwar computer industry.

By Kurt Beyer

Available from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/grace-hopper-and-invention-information-age


lemcen-books-molella-arthur-invented-edens-cover-book-150-inline-edit.jpg

Cover of Invented Edens: Techno-Cities of the 20th Century, showing a modernistic building in a park-like landscape

Invented Edens: Techno-Cities of the 20th Century by Robert H. Kargon and Arthur P. Molella

Invented Edens: Techno-Cities of the Twentieth Century  (2008) traces the design of "techno-cities" that blend the technological and the pastoral.

By Robert H. Kargon and Arthur P. Molella

Available from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/invented-edens

 

 


lemcen-books-ceruzzi-paul-internet-alley-cover-book-150-inline-edit.jpg

Cover of Internet Alley High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945-2005, showing fighter jets, a computer screen, heavy traffic at night in an urban area, and fiber optics cables, with an overlay of a traffic roundabout outline.

Internet Alley High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945-2005 by Paul E. Ceruzzi

Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945-2005 (2008)  looks at how government military contractors and high-tech firms transformed an unincorporated suburban crossroads into the center of the world's Internet management and governance.

By Paul Ceruzzi

Available from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/internet-alley


lemcen-books-schiffer-michael-power-struggles-cover-9780262195829-150-inline-edit.jpg

Cover of Power Struggles: Scientific Authority and the Creation of Practical Electricity Before Edison, showing a line engraving of a 19th century machine shop

Power Struggles: Scientific Authority and the Creation of Practical Electricity Before Edison by Michael Brian Schiffer

Power Struggles: Scientific Authority and the Creation of Practical Electricity Before Edison (2008) traces the development of electrical technologies that laid the foundation for Edison’s work: their invention, commercialization, and adoption.

By Michael Brian Schiffer

Available from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/power-struggles


lemcen-books-molella-arthur-bedi-joyce-inventing-environment-cover-book-150-inline-edit.jpg

Cover of Inventing for the Environment, showing waving ornamental grass fronds against a blue sky

Inventing for the Environment, edited by Arthur P. Molella and Joyce Bedi

Inventing for the Environment (2003) describes the many ways in which invention affects the environment.

Edited by Arthur Molella and Joyce Bedi

Available from the MIT Press

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/inventing-environment


Forthcoming Titles:

  • American Bridge: Inventing Structure, Building Nations by Gregory Dreicer considers the ways in which the lattice, internationally recognized as American, sparked an exchange of ideas that enabled the explosive growth of transportation networks, inspired 19th-century builders to transform traditional construction processes, and led to some of the most extraordinary spans ever built.
  • Beyond Bakelite: Leo Baekeland and the Business of Science and Invention by Joris Mercelis analyzes the career of Belgian-American chemical innovator Leo Baekeland, casting new light on the connections and interdependencies between science and industry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and focusing on the themes of intellectual property and scientific entrepreneurship.
  • Every American an Innovator by Matthew Wisnioski examines the cultural history of innovation’s ascendance in the United States by analyzing the myriad ways that the imperative to innovate has had far-reaching consequences that continue to structure contemporary life.
  • Reinventing the Wristwatch: From a Mechanical to an Electronic World by Carlene Stephens explores both the technical and human dimensions of introducing the electronic wristwatch in the context of the Cold War.
  • The Vanishing American Genius? American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D by Eric S. Hintz considers the changing fortunes of American independent inventors from approximately 1900 to 1950, a period of expanding corporate R&D, the Great Depression, and two world wars.

Tags

  • Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation (Relevance: 3%)
  • Invention process (Relevance: 13%)

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The Color Revolution (2012) by Regina Lee Blaszczyk offers a fresh perspective on the myriad ways innovations in color affect our lives, revealing innovators’ interactions with science, industry, and art that influenced consumer choice and business practice.

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