Inventing in America is a collaboration with the National Museum of American History and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that focuses on inventions and innovators of the past and present. Displaying prized collections of innovations from Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison, this exhibition sets up the conversation to tell the story of Inventing in America.

 

Flanking the corridor are three custom designed cases, one large case with the museums' collection of inventions that changed history. The second and third case showcases inventions and trademarks by National Invention Hall of Fame members. Each of these cases was designed to fit into the museum's architecture with clean lines while bringing warmth by introducing wood to the area. 

 

The shelves are designed to cantilever off the back column with various slots to allow for flexibility to move the shelves up or down. This allows the curators to bring in larger objects and move the shelving system around to meet their needs. Each shelf has a LED light snaked under to spotlight the objects below and nano LED lights set up around the top perimeter for overall lighting. The graphics and text are backlit at the bottom of each case. 

 

An added structure with two interactive touchscreens convey the stories of all hall of fame inventors and their inventions. I collaborated with the USPTO team to research each inventor and invention bringing all aspects of each story together into a functional application connecting the audience to each object and story.