Latest news with #NationalInventorsHallofFame
USA Today
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
5 under-the-radar Washington, DC, museums to visit this summer
Advertisement International Spy Museum – Photo courtesy of Albert Vecerka / International Spy Museum Washington, DC, is known for its museums, and figuring out which ones to visit while in the nation's capital can be daunting. Instead of hitting the tried-and-true institutions on the National Mall, why not seek out the more unusual museums? DC has a treasure trove of under-the-radar museums highlighting everything from French decorative arts to one of the world's rarest stamp collections. Here are five lesser-known museums in Washington, DC, worth visiting the next time you're in town. The International Spy Museum International Spy Museum – Photo courtesy of Taylor Mickal / International Spy Museum Be prepared to go undercover at The International Spy Museum, an immersive museum dedicated to the history of espionage. Start off your visit at the museum's briefing room, where you'll be asked to adopt an alias, before being tested on your skills as an undercover agent. The Spy museum's interactive exhibits celebrate the world's top spymasters, gadget makers, scientists, and engineers and their contributions to the world of intelligence. Explore interactive exhibits about the Cold War, code-breaking, and the art of disguise. Visitors can learn how spying has shaped history, from the American Revolution to modern-day cyber warfare. Collection highlights include James Bond's 1964 Aston Martin and a lipstick pistol. Advertisement Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens – Photo courtesy of Erik Kvalsvik A visit to the Washington, DC, estate of heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post is like stepping back in time. At the heart of Hillwood is a 1920s Georgian-style mansion, which served as Post's home from 1955 until 1977, when it was opened to the public as a museum. As one of DC's most legendary hostesses, Merriweather Post cultivated a refined estate filled with antiques and 18th-century French decorative arts. Post was a serious collector of Russian art; Hillwood boasts the most comprehensive collection outside of Russia. In addition to the museum, you can explore more than 25 acres of gardens. National Inventors Hall of Fame National Inventors Hall of Fame – Photo courtesy of National Inventors Hall of Fame Located south of DC in Alexandria, Virginia, is the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a free museum celebrating the innovation of America's creators and entrepreneurs. Start your visit in the Gallery of Icons, a stunning visual display of more than 600 inventors inducted since the museum's founding in 1973. The Women in Innovation exhibit honors female leaders in science, engineering, and technology. Other permanent exhibits include one dedicated to automotive design and technology, and a trademark exhibit that explains the importance of intellectual property and includes artifacts from brands like Hershey and Major League Baseball. Planet Word Planet Word – Photo courtesy of Duhon Photography / Planet Word Opened in 2020, Planet Word is an immersive experience dedicated to the language arts. The world's first voice-activated museum, Planet Word offers interactive exhibits suitable for all ages. It's an entertainment and educational destination ideal for anyone who's ever wondered about the origins of language or the power of the written and spoken word. Go on a word-sleuthing adventure in Lexicon Lane, where you'll solve puzzles, follow clues, and take apart riddles to solve a themed mystery. To learn more about foreign languages, explore The Spoken Word exhibit, which examines the origins and diversity of world languages. Advertisement Smithsonian National Postal Museum National Postal Museum – Photo courtesy of National Postal Museum OK, technically this is part of the Smithsonian, but it's a Washington, DC, museum that's often overlooked. Ever wonder what happens to a letter once you drop it in a mailbox? The National Postal Museum answers this question and so much more. Dedicated to celebrating the mission of the United States Postal Service, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum explores the history of the mail service, from colonial times to present day through a series of interactive exhibits that tell the story of how our nation communicates through mail. Book Now When you check rates and book independently reviewed hotels through our site, we may earn a small commission. Learn about how the U.S. Postal Inspection Service prevents fraud and catches drug traffickers. Step inside the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery to see the world's largest stamp collection dedicated to philately, the study of postage stamps. The impressive collection brings to life the stories behind some of the world's most rare and collectible stamps. The museum's fascinating array of artifacts includes mail reclaimed from the wreckage of the Hindenburg disaster and a flight suit once worn by pilot and philatelist Amelia Earhart. Pop culture enthusiasts also will enjoy seeing the postal uniform worn by the fictional mail carrier Cliff Clavin from the television show, "Cheers."
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nonprofit summer camp program to be held in the area
Camp Invention will be held at St. Mary Catholic School the weeks starting June 9 and June 16. According to a community announcement, this nonprofit summer camp program is designed for children in kindergarten through grade six. It is a program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Camp Invention encourages kids to explore their creativity and problem-solving skills through hands-on activities. The program promotes STEM learning and helps build confidence, leadership and resourcefulness in a fun environment. Each year, the camp features a new curriculum inspired by notable inventors. This year's Discover program includes several engaging activities: In Control allows campers to navigate their innovation journey during a road trip. The Illusion Workshop introduces children to the fascinating world of illusions. Claw Arcade challenges campers to create a functional arcade game using cardboard. Penguin Launch takes kids on an eco-expedition to learn about penguins and their Antarctic habitat. All local Camp Invention programs are led by qualified educators from the community. The camp serves approximately 140,000 students annually and collaborates with more than 2,600 schools and districts nationwide. For more information or to register, go to This story was created by Janis Reeser, jreeser@ with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at or share your thoughts at with our News Automation and AI team. Barbara Ingram School for the Arts to present 'Once Upon a Mattress' This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Camp Invention coming to St. Mary Catholic School
New York Times
14-03-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Overlooked No More: Beulah Henry, Inventor With an Endless Imagination
This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. From the time Beulah Henry was a child in the late 19th century, she dreamed of ways to make life easier. That impulse would eventually drive her to secure dozens of patents and would earn her a nickname: Lady Edison. When she died in the early 1970s, she held far more patents than any other woman, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and in 2006 she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her contributions to technological innovation. 'I invent because I cannot help it,' she often said. 'New things just thrust themselves upon me.' Her first prototype, when she was 9, was for a mechanism that would allow a man to tip his hat to a passerby while simultaneously holding a newspaper. The visions kept coming. In 1912, while she was in college, she received her first patent (No. 1,037,762) for an ice-cream maker that functioned with minimal ice, something that was in short supply at the time. It was not a commercial success, but that did not stop her from dreaming up other innovations. 'Ice Cream Freezer' Anything and everything seemed to interest her: toys, typewriters, sewing machines, coffee pots, hair curlers, can openers, mailing envelopes. Her achievements were all the more remarkable because she had no knowledge of mechanics and lacked the technical vocabulary to describe what she was trying to do. Working out of a series of hotel suites — one reporter who visited described what he saw as resembling a boudoir more than a place of business — she hired model makers, draftsmen and patent lawyers to realize her visions. Sometimes she sold her ideas to manufacturers who then applied for their own patents. Henry could see the finished product in her head, she said, 'as clearly as you see a book or a picture or a flower held up before you.' Her challenge was to communicate that vision clearly enough so that others could bring it to reality. 'I say to the engineers, build me such and such, and they say to me, 'Miss Henry, it couldn't possibly work,'' she told The Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel in 1965. 'And I say to them, 'I don't know if it will work but I'm looking at it,' and so they build it and it works.' Beulah Louise Henry was born on Sept. 28, 1887, in Raleigh, N.C. Her father, Walter R. Henry, was an art connoisseur and collector who was active in local Democratic politics. Her mother, Beulah (Williamson) Henry, was an artist. Her brother, Peyton, was a songwriter. Henry claimed to be descended from Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, and from the Revolutionary War hero Patrick Henry. In interviews, she said her ability to invent may have been influenced by a neurological condition called synesthesia, in which unrelated senses are linked — certain sounds or tastes may call to mind particular colors, for example. 'I have it one million percent,' she would say. After graduating from Elizabeth College, in Charlotte, N.C., she moved with her mother to New York City to pursue her inventing career. One idea involved a parasol with snap-on covers in various colors that could be changed to match a woman's outfit. It wasn't an easy sell. 'Parasol' and 'Runner Shield Attachment' One after another, the experts told her, 'It can't be done,' she was quoted as saying in The Raleigh News and Observer in 1923. 'But I knew it could be done.' The final result, described in the press as 'a miracle for the smart milady,' was so popular that she established the Henry Umbrella and Parasol Company to make and market her creation. Lord & Taylor displayed the parasols in its windows, and they sold by the thousands. For a while, Henry put her energy into reinventing children's toys, primarily dolls. She used springs and tubes to make them kick, blink and cry; she put a radio inside one. Her most popular creation was the Miss Illusion Doll, with eyes that changed color to match its wigs. She also created a plush toy cow called Milka-Moo, which dispensed milk and had a secret compartment for a bar of soap. 'Simulating Dispensing Device' Later, she turned to typewriters. Of the 10 or so related patents she received, the most impressive was perhaps the 'protograph' (No. 1,874,749), an attachment that produced multiple copies of a document without carbon paper. She would 'just look at something,' Henry said, 'and think, 'There's a better way of doing that,' and the idea comes to me.' In 1941, she took a long look at sewing machines and invented the Double Chain Stitch Sewing Machine (No. 2,230,896), which functioned without the bobbins that seamstresses had to periodically stop and change. 'Double Chain Stitch Sewing Machine' She also found a way to make cooking easier. For years, she said, 'the percolator on the coffee pot said to me, 'Do something with me,' but I didn't know what. And then one day when I was basting a roast, I knew what I had to do with that percolator.' She went on: 'I worked out a device that percolates the juice in a roaster and bastes the meat continuously by itself.' She received the patent for it in 1962. Reporters portrayed her in effusive terms: She was 'a superb, commanding figure,' one noted; 'stylishly gowned,' another said — 'delightfully, almost theatrically feminine' and 'more like an opera star than a studious scientific person.' Those who visited her at work in her hotel room often detected a whiff of incense and mentioned her pink lampshades or the large telescope she placed near a window so that she could gaze at the night sky. Then there were the pets: At various times she kept small turtles, a parakeet, a tropical oriole, several doves and cockatiels, and a cat named Chickadee. Henry was active in the American Museum of Natural History, the National Audubon Society, the New York Women's League for Animals and the New York Microscopical Society, among other organizations. She never married. Her far-flung inspirations were a mystery to her mother, who lived with her much of the time. 'I don't know what to make of her,' her mother said in 1923. 'She gets up at night and prowls around making experiments with the electric lights and the water system, or hunting for sheets of brown paper to draw on or cut up.' Henry offered a mystical explanation for her compulsion. 'I have come to believe in spirit control,' she told The News Tribune, in Tacoma, Wash., in 1939. 'And I'm sure that the ideas that flock into my mind in the early hours of the morning are messages from a guiding spirit.' She was 85 when she died in February 1973, with her 49th and final patent — the nature of it is lost to time — pending.
