The Smithsonian Chip Collection website launched in 1998 to provide access to our exceptional collection of microelectronics objects and images. The site contained information about individual ...

Jack Kilby’s demonstration of the first working integrated circuit (IC) in 1958 revolutionized the field of microelectronics. Instead of using discrete transistors, resistors, and capacitors to form a ...

Sewing Machine Patent Model. Patent No. 4,750, issued September 10, 1846. Elias Howe Jr. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. While working as a journeyman machinist, Elias Howe Jr. wrestled for years to find ...

Cookie Monster is a live-hand puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by David Rudman. In a live-hand puppet, like Cookie Monster, one of the performer’s hands is in the puppet ...

Western Electric manufactured the pink “Princess” telephone beginning in 1959. The original Princess phone was model 701 that needed an external ringer; this phone is model 702B that was manufactured ...

Ventriloquist dummy Jerry Mahoney, created by Paul Winchell around 1938. This is the first of many "Jerrys" which the puppeteer used over the course of his decades-long career as a performer on stage ...

The 4-6-2 "Pacific" type steam locomotive for passenger trains was introduced late in the 19th century and perfected after 1910. It was among the most numerous type of steam locomotive for passenger ...

John Garand was a civil service employee. As the chief civilian engineer at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts, he invented a semiautomatic .30-caliber rifle known as the M1 or the "Garand." His ...

Most drawings focused on warrior deeds and exploits—attacking, killing, or counting coup on enemies—and on warriors’ injuries and death during battle with Indian and non-Indian adversaries. Many ...