Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum Search this
Extent:
1 Sound recording (open reel, 1/4 inch)
Type:
Archival materials
Sound recordings
Narration
Place:
Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)
Washington (D.C.)
United States
Date:
circa 1989
Scope and Contents:
During the audio tour of exhibition, The Real McCoy: African-American Invention and Innovation, narrator Robert Hall presents contributions made by black inventors to American technology from 1619 to 1930. Inventions and innovations by Benjamin Banneker, Elijah McCoy, Lewis Latimer, James Forten, Lewis Temple, Norbert Rillieux, Ned (slave), Benjamin Montgomery, George Washington Carver, Solomon Harper, Madame C.J. Walker, and Marjorie Joyner, among others, are highlighted. This history, challenges, and successes of patent licensing for inventions created by black inventors, including the question of patents for inventions created by slaves, are discussed.
Audio tour narration. Part of The Real McCoy: Afro-American Invention and Innovation 1619-1930 Audiovisual Materials. Undated.
Biographical / Historical:
The exhibition - The Real McCoy: African-American Invention and Innovation, 1619-1930 - focused on outstanding black inventors, as well as anonymous innovators, who, as slaves, craftsmen and workers, made important contributions to the United States. Included are actual inventions, such an Jan Matzelieger's "shoe-lasting" machine, which revolutionized shoe production, and Garrett Morgan's safety hood and automatic traffic signal, forerunners of the modern gas mask and traffic stop light. The exhibition examines such topics as African influences on Colonial technology and how the slave system stymied technological innovation. Individual inventors such as Lewis Temple, Elijah McCoy, James Forten, and Norbert Rillieux are profiled. Also featured are artifacts from some of the expositions of the late 19th-century, which celebrated this new surge of black inventiveness. The exhibition was curated by Portia James and organized by the Anacostia Museum. It was held at the museum from May 1989 - May 1990.
General:
Title transcribed from physical asset.
Series Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
Incandescent electric lighting : a practical description of the Edison system / by L.H. Latimer ; to which is added, The design and operation of incandescent stations / by C.J. Field ; and, A paper on the maximum efficiency of incandescent lamps / by John W. Howell
Thomas A. Edison papers [electronic resource] : a documentary editing project / sponsored by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, and the New Jersey Historical Commission
Author:
Edison, Thomas A (Thomas Alva) 1847-1931 Search this
Blueprint for change : the life and times of Lewis H. Latimer / edited by Janet M. Schneider, Bayla Singer ; essays by Asa J. Davis, Kenneth R. Manning, Bayla Singer
Incandescent electric lighting. A practical description of the Edison system. By L. H. Latimer. To which is added the Design and operation of incandescent stations. By C. J. Field. And a paper on The maximum efficiency of incandescent lamps. By John W. Howell
