National Museum of American History (NMAH)

Curatorial and Collections

Curatorial Affairs

Division of Culture and the Arts

The Division of Culture and the Arts dedicates itself to educating and inspiring its audiences by preserving and presenting their heritage. The division carries out its mission through collections, research, exhibitions, publications, teaching and lectures, performances, broadcasts, and other presentations. The areas of focus for collections and programs are: music, dance, theater, film, broadcast media, sports, recreation, popular culture, home life, gender identity, life cycles, lifestyles and family structure, work, patterns of domestic production and consumption, standards of cleanliness and health, diverse forms of housing, modernization and the role of technology, invention, leisure, community institutions, religion, and education.

Our collections represent the daily life of America’s diverse population from the 17th to the 21st century. The areas of focus for some collections and programs are music, dance, theater, film, broadcast media, sports, recreation, popular culture, photographic history, printing and the graphic arts. Additional subjects explored include home furnishings, food, clothing, domestic production, religion, community organizations, and patterns of migration and immigration. Childhood and the development of leisure time are examined, along with the roles technology and invention play in home and community life. The examination of these themes leads to a greater understanding of the American experience. The collections include ceramics and glass, textiles, domestic life, and costume, as well as the ethnic, education and religion collections.

Research Staff

Gonzalves, Theodore. Curator. B.S. (1990) Santa Clara University; M.A. (1993) San Francisco State University; Ph.D. (2001) University of California, Irvine. Research specialties: Comparative Cultural Studies, Asian Pacific American History, Culture and the Performing Art. Contact: GonzalvesTh@si.edu

Jentsch, Eric. Team Leader, Curator. B.A. (1993) St. Louis University; M.A. (1996) George Washington University. Research specialties: Sports and popular culture, History of Entertainment. Contact: JentschE@si.edu

Klingenberg, Krystal. Curator. B.A. (2006) Princeton University; M.A. (2015) Harvard University; Ph.D. (2019) Harvard University. Research specialties: Global Black Popular Musics, African American Music, Music of Africa, Music of Uganda, Diaspora, Globalization, Digital Media. Contact: KlingenbergK@si.edu

Labode, Modupe. Curator. B.A. (1988) Iowa State University; Ph.D. (1992) Oxford University. Research specialties: African American social justice history; public history; monuments and memorials.  Contact: labodem@si.edu

Lintelman, Ryan. Curator. B.A. (2009) College of William & Mary; M.A. (2015) George Mason University. Research specialties: History of American Entertainment, Public History, History of Museums. Contact: LintelmanR@si.edu

Manseau, Peter. Curator, Center for the Understanding of Religion in American History. B.A. University of Massachusetts; M.A. Georgetown University; Ph.D. Georgetown University. Research specialties: American religious diversity, Relics and material culture of religious traditions, American Yiddish literature, Roman Catholicism in the United States, Science and religion, Religion and media. Contact: ManseauP@si.edu

Ruffins, Fath Davis. Curator. B.A. (1976) Radcliffe College; A.B.D. (1976-79) Harvard University. Research specialties: African American history and culture; racial construction and ethnic identity; museum studies, historic preservation, exhibition development public history. Contact: RuffinsF@si.edu

Sanefuji, Noriko. Museum Specialist. B.A (1999) Randolph Macon Women’s College. Research specialties: Asian Pacific American History and Japanese Americans and World War II. Contact: SanefujiN@si.edu

Troutman, John. Acting Chair, Curator. B.A. (1995) Emory University; M.A. (1997) The University of Arizona; Ph.D. (2004) The University of Texas at Austin. Research specialties: History of Popular and Vernacular Music in the United States, History of Acoustic, Electric, and Hawaiian (Steel) Guitars, U.S. Popular Culture, Native American and Indigenous Studies. Contact: TroutmanJ@si.edu

Affiliated Research Staff

Winkle, Timothy. Curator. B.A. (1995) College of William & Mary; M.A. Popular Culture Studies (1998) Bowling Green State University; M.A. Museum Studies (2002) University College London. Research specialties: History of American firefighting, Fraternal history, Community organizations, History and development of early American museums. Contact: WinkleT@si.edu

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Division of Home and Community Life

The Division of Home and Community Life cares for, researches, and develops collections that represent the daily life of America’s diverse population from the 17th to the 21st century. Subjects explored include home furnishings, food, clothing, domestic production, religion, community organizations, and patterns of migration and immigration. Childhood and the development of leisure time are examined, along with the roles technology and invention play in home and community life. The examination of these themes leads to a greater understanding of the American experience. The collections include ceramics and glass, textiles, domestic life, and costume, as well as the ethnic, education and religion collections of the former Division of Community Life. The staff shares its research and collections with the public through exhibitions, publications, lectures, and behind-the-scenes tours of its storage areas.

Research Staff

Salazar-Porzio, Margaret, Curator. B.A., (2005) California State University of Los Angeles, M.A. (2008) and Ph.D. (2010), University of Southern California, American Studies and Ethnicity. Research specialties: U.S. Chicana/o and Latina/o History; Immigration and transnational history of the U.S.-Mexico Border Region and the Pacific Rim; Asian American Studies; Comparative Race Relations in the 20th-Century U.S.; Media Studies with an emphasis on Television, Photography, and New Media; Visual and Material Culture of Latinas/os in the U.S.; Civil Rights and Human Rights Law; Women’s and Gender Studies. Contact: Salazar-PorzioM@si.edu

Schaefer-Jacobs, Debbie. Curator. B.A. (1972) University of Rhode Island; M.A. (1977) M.A. Texas Tech University. Research specialties: History of American education, Educational toys and Childhood games, 19th century American prints, Visual studies and American material culture, Collection documentation, digitization, and classification of artifacts of the home. Contact: Schaefer-Jacobs@si.edu

Velasquez, Steve, Curator. B.A. (1994) University of Missouri; M.A. (1997) George Washington University. Research specialties: Latino identity and material culture, Latin American material culture; Latin American archaeology, Post Classic (Aztec) ceramics from Central Mexico. Contact: VelasquezS@si.edu 

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Division of Political and Military History

The Division of Political and Military History collects, studies, and cares for the material culture of American democracy and the nation’s military.

The political history team gives particular attention to the political principles, practices, and institutions that have shaped the political culture of the United States. It focuses on political relationships between groups and interests; institutions of government; and changing practices of representative and participatory democracy in a nation of diverse people and cultures. The team is especially interested in changing definitions of citizenship and political rights; contested political ideologies; governmental policies and their impact; the role of political parties; elections; protest and reform movements; varied and changing expressions of nationalism; predictive opinion and media effects; and traditional political techniques and forms of communication.

The military history team collects the material culture of the American military experience from the French and Indian War to the contemporary War on Terrorism. Notable elements of the museum’s military collections include the Japanese American internment experience during WWII, and the September 11 attacks on the United States, women’s military history, and firearms technology. Collectively, the team works uses the materials and interprets these in relation to the country's social and cultural history. The division's collections, exhibitions, public programs, research, and writing put America's armed forces into historical context.

Uniforms, Accoutrements, and Insignia These collections contain uniforms, accoutrements, and insignia from the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Army Air Corps, and Coast Guard. Uniform collections include such objects as: headgear, footwear, buttons, belts, field equipment, rations, and personal effects. Smaller sub-collections within this subject include U.S. women’s uniforms, foreign uniforms, and ancillary service uniforms. Accoutrement collections include: holsters, slings, scabbards, bandoliers, and ammunition pouches and 500 pieces of horse equipment, mainly saddles. Insignia collections include: badges of rank, decorations, awards, and trophies.

Flags The collections contain US national flags including the Star-Spangled Banner and U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Army Air Corps, and Coast Guard related flags. There is also a discrete foreign flag collection.

Firearms and Ordnance This collection contains military and sporting long arms, military and civilian handguns, submachine guns, machine pistols, machine guns, grenade launchers, military and naval cannon, artillery and small arm ammunition, artillery and small arm accessories (ramrods, cleaning rods, and powder flasks) and edged weapons (swords, knives, and presentation pieces) and pole arms.

Arts and Graphics These collections contain paintings, illustrations, posters (broadsides), and prints ranging from the 19th century to modern day. They cover a range of topics including battle scenes, recruitment drives, portraits, and depictions of uniforms. A majority of the collection deals with World War I military art.

Gunboat “Philadelphia” A warship used by the Continental forces under General Benedict Arnold in the battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776. The ship was burned and sunk in the battle and raised in 1935. It came to the Smithsonian in 1960.

Japanese American Internment This collection explored a period when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of the citizen and the power of the state. The 200 plus objects tell the story of Japanese Americans before, during, and after their internment between the years 1942-1945.

September 11th Collection The division houses the bulk, but not all, of the Museum’s collections that relate to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. In December 2001, the U.S. Congress made it the responsibility of the National Museum of American History to collect and preserve artifacts relating to the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Flight 93 Pennsylvania crash. The collection contains materials from all three sites.

Political Campaign Collection  The Political Campaign Collection is the largest holding of presidential campaign material in the United States and includes banners, signs, campaign ephemera, novelties, documents, photographs, voter registration material, ballots, and voting machines.

General Political History Collections  The General Political History Collections includes personal and ceremonial objects associated with the presidency, White House, and first ladies; inaugural items; material associated with national political figures and events; home front and civil defense material; national symbols, and items related to government policies and organizations.

Reform Movements Collections  The Reform Movements Collections includes material that documents women’s history and suffrage, civil rights, labor history, and groups and individuals that have organized and demonstrated around political, social, economic and international issues throughout American history.

Research Staff

Bercaw, Nancy. Curator. B.A. (1982) History, Oberlin College; M.A. (1987) American Civilization, University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D. (1996) American Civilization, University of Pennsylvania. Research specialties: slavery and emancipation; 19th century U.S.; liberatory movements, Restorative History, undocumented political organizing, public history/public memory.  Contact: bercawn@si.edu

Blazich, Frank. Curator. B.A. (2004) University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; M.A. (2008) North Carolina State University, Raleigh; Ph.D. (2013) The Ohio State University, Columbus. Research specialties: Twentieth century U.S. military history, notably myth and public memory; Pacific War and Vietnam War prisoners of war; American home front organizations; civil defense and fallout shelter policies.  Contact: blazichf@si.edu

Graddy, Lisa Kathleen. Curator. B.A. (1985) University of Maryland; M.A. (1987) Texas Tech University. Research specialties: Women’s Political History; U.S. Political History; First Ladies Collection. Contact: GraddyL@si.edu

Grinspan, Jon. Curator. B.A. (Date) University; M.A. (Date) University; Ph.D. (Date) University. Research specialties: research specialty 1, research specialty 2, etc. Contact: SI email

Jerry, Claire. Curator. B.A. (1979) Butler University; M.A. (1982) Miami University; M.A. (2012) University of Illinois Springfield; Ph.D. (1987) University of Kansas. Research specialties: U.S. political history and campaign communication, U.S. women’s history, history of public address, public history and public memory. Contact: JerryC@si.edu

Jones, Jennifer Locke. Curator. B.A. (1985) George Washington University. Research specialties: Twentieth-century U.S. military history, Japanese Americans and World War II; World War II homefront; Vietnam Memorial and Vietnam war; U.S. National flags. Contact: JonesJl@si.edu

Labode, Modupe. Curator. B.A. (1988) Iowa State University; Ph.D. (1992) Oxford University. Research specialties: African American social justice history; public history; monuments and memorials.  Contact: labodem@si.edu

Méndez, Verónica A. Curator. B.A. (2008) University of Texas at San Antonio; M.A. (2008/2010) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Ph.D. (2021) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Research specialties: Nineteenth-century Texas history, U.S.-Mexico borderlands history, race, gender and the law, Latin American history, social movements. Contact: mendezv@si.edu

Rand, Harry. Senior Curator. B.A. (1969) City College of New York; M.A. (1971), Ph.D. (1974) Harvard University. Research specialties: Cultural assumptions in the material culture of fine arts of the twentieth-century in America and Europe; religion’s cultural expression in theology & sustainable architecture; the methodology of art history. Contact: RandH@si.edu

Rodriguez, Manuel R. Curator. Contact: rodriguezmr@si.edu

Affiliated Research Staff

Bemis, Bethanee. Museum Specialist. B.A. (2009) University of Maryland, Baltimore County; M.A. (2011) University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Research specialties: national symbols, political history collections, Disney theme parks, national narratives. Contact: bemisb@si.edu

Hashim, Debra.

Miller, David. Curator. B.A. (1987), M.A. (1992) George Mason University. Research specialties: American War of Independence and Early National Period; firearms and edged weapons. Contact: MillerDavid@si.edu

Murphy, Sara. Museum Specialist. B.A. (2000) Roanoke College. Research specialties: World War I and World War II Homefront, political history collections. Contact: murphys@si.edu

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Division of Medicine and Science

The Division of Medicine and Science acquires, preserves, studies, and interprets the material culture of the biological, medical, and physical sciences, and the fields of mathematics, computers, and information technology. Staff of the division collect, research, and disseminate information in the areas of the history of medicine and health, surgery, dentistry, pharmacy, psychology, disability, public health, biotechnology, biology, chemistry, computers, mathematics, physics, astronomy, meteorology, navigation, surveying, nuclear power, materials science, science education, and the environment. To check out our collections, please click here.

Biological Sciences Molecular biology and biotechnology instrumentation, special apparatus and instrumentation used for field and laboratory research and in classroom education, artifacts documenting the social and political history of biology, artifacts relating to the roles of women and minorities in science, and trade literature associated with these areas. The environmental history collection focuses on the material culture of the environmental movement and conservation.

Computers Include electronic computers and related electronic devices, software, records, and ephemera that document in material form the evolution of computers and their pervasive effects on modern American society.

Mathematics Include astrolabes, drawing instruments, slide rules, mechanical calculating machines, cryptographic instruments, geometric models, and other objects pertaining to mathematics and mathematics teaching, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Medical Sciences Crude drugs, patent medicines, biological, drug manufacturing apparatus and containers, laboratory equipment, eyeglasses, cardiac and other surgical instruments, artificial organs, dental equipment, microscopes, radiology apparatus, diagnostic instruments, quack medical devices, and veterinary medicines and equipment. There are growing collections related to the history of disability, alternative or complementary medicine, molecular medicine and genetic engineering, and public health. These are supplemented by trade catalogs, posters, advertising literature, business records, and audio-visual manuscript materials.

Modern Physics Artifacts related to 20th-century physics, notably nuclear fission and its applications, subatomic particle accelerators and detectors, and atomic clocks.

Physical Sciences Include apparatus of astronomy, chemistry, classical physics, meteorology, navigation, and surveying. Of particular importance are instruments used to explore, survey, and analyze the North American continent; instruments used for science education in American schools; and research apparatus from academic, government, and industrial laboratories. Trade literature supplements the collection.

Research Staff

Frederick-Frost, Kristen. Curator. Contact: FrederickFrostK@si.edu

Kidwell, Peggy Aldrich, Curator. B.A. (1971) Grinnell College; M.Phil (1974), Ph.D. (1979) Yale University. Research specialties: History of mathematical instruments and mathematics teaching. Contact: KidwellP@si.edu

Lord, Alexandra, Chair and Curator. A.B. (1987) Vassar College; Ph.D. (1995) University of Wisconsin, Madison. Research specialties: History of public health, sex education, the medicalization of suicide, urbanization, infectious disease, and public health. Contact: LordA@si.edu

Ott, Katherine, Curator. B.U.S. (1976) University of New Mexico; Ph.D. (1991) Temple University. Research specialties: History of the body, disability, ethnic and folk medicine, integrative and alternative medicine, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, dermatology, medical technology, prosthetics and rehabilitation, sexuality; visual and material culture, ephemera. Contact: OttK@si.edu

Stine, Jeffrey K., Curator. B.A. (1975), M.A. (1978), Ph.D. (1984) University of California, Santa Barbara. Research specialties: Environmental history; history of science and technology policy. Contact: Stine@si.edu

Warner, Deborah J., Curator. B.A. (1962) University of Chicago; M.A. (1963) Harvard University. Research specialties: History of scientific instruments; history of celestial cartography; women in science and technology. Contact: WarnerD@si.edu

Wendt, Diane. Curator. B.A. (1982) College of William and Mary. Research specialties: History of Pharmacy and Public Health: including materia medica, patent medicines, health and hygiene products, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and drug advertising. Contact: WendtDL@si.edu

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Division of Work and Industry

The division brings together collections in the history of technology, work, business, communications, food, energy, agriculture, numismatics, and visual cultures. The division cares for collections that originated in the 19th century and include the earliest known objects and images in the Smithsonian’s holdings. Researchers can find national treasures and the remnants of everyday activities. Curators are actively collecting in contemporary areas of interest spanning agriculture, automation, business, communications, energy production, food and brewing, photography, prints, and work.

Agriculture and Natural Resources Collections These collections include agricultural machinery; food processing technology and food packaging containers; mining, especially coal mining; petroleum; fisheries including whaling.

Asian Pacific American Collection This collection is s growing and currently includes textile trades, ranching, food and entrepreneurship, labor, im/migration, and refugee studies. 

Business History Collections These collections include office machinery and accessories; franchise history materials; advertising and marketing objects and associated archival materials. 

Graphic Arts Collection The printing and "Graphic Arts Collection" includes roughly 70,000 artifacts associated with the technology and production of textual and visual culture. The international printmaking collection includes examples of works on paper and tools for their production.  The printing and typography collections include textual works on paper, also produced with various printing technologies, and tools for their production. Also included in the collection are smaller allied trade collections: papermaking, bookbinding, printing for the blind, illustration history.

Industrial History Collections These collections focus on machines for working metal and wood, and the industrial context that makes sense of those machines; process control devices; robotics; material related to industrial management, including images taken by Frank and Lilian Gilbreth for scientific management studies; miscellaneous industrial machinery and products.

Engineering History Collections These collections include prime movers, steam and gas engines and wind and water power devices, and many models and toys; extensive archival, model and photographic collections relating to civil engineering works, including bridges, tunnels, buildings and railroad rights-of-way.

Electricity These collections preserve and explore the history of electrical science and technology.  Holdings include electrostatic devices; lamps, generators, meters and other power system components; communications technology such as telegraphy, telephony, magnetic recording, radio, and television; and masers, lasers, transistors and chips.

Extractive Industries These collections cover coal and mineral mining; the oil industry; fisheries, forestry, and human labor. 

Food Technology The food technology collections include the wine and brewing industries; food production, restaurants and entrepreneurship. 

Mechanisms Collections These collections comprise watches and clocks (European and American); mechanical phonographs; experimental phonograph records; and locks.

National Numismatics Collection The NNC is America's collection of monetary and transactional objects. This diverse and expansive global collection contains objects that represent every inhabited continent and span more than three thousand years of human history. The NNC is comprised of approximately 1.6 million objects including coins, paper money, medals, tokens, commodity and alternative currencies, coin dies, printing plates, scales and weights, financial documents and apparatuses, credit cards, and objects that reflect established and emerging digital monetary technologies. The collection and its library are a national treasure and a public resource for research and education. Both are housed at the National Museum of American History and are available for consultation in our study room by appointment. A portion of the collection is also on display in the museum's numismatic exhibition, titled The Value of Money, and is increasingly accessible through our online catalog. The NNC is a center for rigorous numismatic and historical research that strives to develop innovative approaches to preservation, digitization, and display.

Photographic History Collections The Photographic History Collection (PHC) represents the history of the medium of photography. The PHC holds the work of over 2000 identified photographers and studios, about 200,000 photographs, about 15,000 cameras, pieces of apparatus, studio equipment and sensitized materials. The scope of the collection spans from daguerreotypes to digital and includes unidentified to well-known photographers, international and United States-centered objects, and familiar and experimental photographic formats.

Transportation Collections These collections include road transportation -- automobiles, trucks, and motorcycles, bicycles and animal-drawn vehicles; automobile accessories, highway and travel objects, and other road transportation objects.  Also included are maritime collections of rigged and half-hull ship models; more than 7,000 ship design plans; large collections of photographs, scrimshaw, and marine paintings. Finally, the collection includes railroad collections -- locomotive models and full-scale railroad cars and locomotives; Pullman Porter objects, and archival materials relating to rail transportation.

Working Class History These collections include tools of various trades, uniforms, ID badges; and guest worker programs such as the Bracero program.  Please note Labor Union collections reside in Political History.

Research Staff

Boudreau, Joan, Curator. B.A. (1978) Boston College Certificate of Accomplishment U.S.D.A. Graduate School, Natural Field Studies (1986). Research specialties: History of printmaking; history of printing; environmental history; government printmaking & the American West. Contact: BoudreauJ@si.edu

Feingold, Ellen, Curator of the National Numismatic Collection. B.A. (2005) University of Wisconsin-Madison; MSc. (2007) University of Oxford (St. Antony’s College); D. Phil (2012) University of Oxford (Merton College). Research specialties: Imperial and global history, with a focus on the history of the British Empire and process of decolonization; the history of money and monetary objects; counterfeiting and forgery; African history and culture; legal institutions and the administration of justice. Contact: FeingoldE@si.edu

Franz, Kathleen, Curator. B.A. (1990) University of Texas at San Antonio; Ph.D. (1999) Brown University. Research specialties: Cultural history of business and technology in the United States from the 1870s to the 1950s. Contact: FranzKG@si.edu

Johnson, Paula J., Curator. B.A. (1976) Gustavus Adolphus College; M.A. (1981) University of Texas, Austin. Research specialties: American food and wine history; Chesapeake Bay maritime history and folklore; North American fisheries and fishing communities; boats and boatbuilding. Contact: JohnsonPA@si.edu

Johnston, Paul F., Curator. B.A. (1972) Middlebury College; Ph.D. (1981) University of Pennsylvania. Research specialties: Maritime history, marine art and nautical archaeology of the United States and worldwide; automobiles and motorcycles. Contact: JohnstonPF@si.edu

McCulla, Theresa, Curator. B.A. (2004) Harvard University; M.A. (2012) Harvard University; Ph.D. (2017) Harvard University. Research specialties: research specialty 1, research specialty 2, etc. Contact: McCullaT

Moniz, Amanda, Curator. B.A. (Date) Brown University; M.A. (Date) University of Michigan; Ph.D. (Date) University of Michigan. Research specialties: Early American history; American philanthropy, charity, humanitarianism, and reform; Atlantic world and British philanthropy. MonizA@si.edu

Perich, Shannon Thomas, Curator. B.A. (1993), B.F.A. (1993) University of Arizona; M.A. (1996) George Washington University. Research specialties: History of photography, snapshot and vernacular photography, history of digital photography, Richard Avedon. Contact: PerichS@si.edu

Perry, Tony, Curator. B.A. (Date) Bowdoin College; M.A. (Date) Perdue University; Ph.D. (Date) University of Maryland. Research specialties: Environmental History, History of Slavery, Mining and Extractive Industries. Contact: PerryT@si.edu

Saha, Abeer, Curator. B.S. (2013) University of Virginia; M.A. (2017) University of Virginia; Ph.D. (2021) University of Virginia. Research specialties: Science and technology studies (STS), global environmental history, and the history of American capitalism and agriculture. Contact: SahaA@si.edu

Stephens, Carlene, Curator. B.A. (1971) Muhlenberg College; M.A. (1976) University of Delaware. Research specialties: History of time in the United States. Contact: StephensC@si.edu

Vong, Sam, Curator, B.A. University of California, Berkeley; MA California State University; Ph.D. Yale University. Research specialties: Asian Pacific American Studies, Refugee Studies, Fisheries and Working Class History,  Contact: VongS@si.edu

Wallace, Harold, Curator. B.A. (1982), M.A. (1994), Ph.D. (in progress) University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Research specialties: Electric light and power; electrical communication technology; electrical science. Contact: WallaceH@si.edu

Young, Ashley Rose. Historian. B.A. (2010) Yale; M.A. Duke University (2013) Duke University; Ph.D. (2017) University. Research specialties: food history Contact: YoungAR@si.edu

Affiliated Staff

Gloede, Jennifer, Collections Manager, National Numismatics Collection. B.A. University of Maryland; M.A. George Washington University. Research specialties: numismatics Contact: GloedeJ@si.edu

Oakman, Sarah, B.A. (Date) Juniata College; M.A. (Date) George Washington University. Research specialties: Collections Manager, Photographic History and Graphic Arts Collections. 

Wiggins, Kelsey, Museum Specialist. B.A. (Date) American University; M.A. (Date) Leeds University; MA Museum Studies, George Washington University.  Research specialties: Collections Management for Business History Collections Contact: WigginsK@si.edu>

Wright, Helena E., Curator. B.A. (1968) Bryn Mawr; M.L. Sc. (1975) Simmons College. Research specialties: Visual culture, including prints and photomechanical processes; history of print collecting; business history of American printmaking; women’s work in graphic arts trades. Contact: WrightH@si.edu

York, Hillery, Museum Specialist. B.A. (Date) Grade Valley State University; M.A. (Date) George Washington University. Research specialties: Senior Collections Manager for Work & Industry Contact: YorkH@si.edu

Lemelson Center for Study of Invention and Innovation

The Lemelson Center engages, educates and empowers the public to participate in technological, economic and social change. The Center undertakes historical research, develops educational initiatives, creates exhibitions, and hosts public programming to advance new perspectives on invention and innovation and to foster interactions between the public and inventors.

Research Staff

Hintz, Eric S., Historian. B.S. (1996) University of Notre Dame; M. A. (2005), Ph.D. (2010) University of Pennsylvania. Research specialties: history of 19th and 20th-century science and technology; invention, innovation, and R&D; U.S. business and economic history; science, technology, and religion. Contact: HintzE@si.edu

Affiliated Research Staff

Bedi, Joyce E., Senior Historian. B.A. (1977) Northeastern University; M.A. (1983) James Cook University. Research specialties: History of technology, invention, photography. Contact: BediJ@si.edu

Brodie, Jeffrey L., Deputy Director. B.A. (1991) University of California, Berkeley; M.A. (1993) University of Connecticut; Ph.D. (2005) George Washington University. Research specialties: United States History, American Revolution, early National Period. Contact: BrodieJ@si.edu

Molella, Arthur P., Emeritus. B.A. (1965) Syracuse University; M.A. (1968), Ph.D. (1972) Cornell University Hon DSc. Westminster University, London. Research specialties: Science, technology, and society in the U.S.; process of invention; technology and modernism; technology and urban planning. Contact: MolellaA@si.edu

Oswald, Alison L., Archivist. B.A. (1989) St. Bonaventure University M.S. (1992) Ball State University M.L.S. (1994) State University of New York. Research specialties: American inventors and history of technology, science and health care related collections. Contact: OswaldA@si.edu

Smith, Monica M., Exhibition Program Manager. B.A. (1992) Pomona College. Research specialties: 19th and 20th century American invention, including invention and development of electric guitar; relationship among invention creativity, and play, and the inventive process. Contact: SmithMo@si.edu