Alison Oswald, Archivist
Establishment of the institution/organization: The creation of the Museum of History and Technology (MHT) within the United States National Museum (USNM) occurred on July 1, 1957, to gather the historical collections under one museum. The museum building opened in 1964. USNM ceased to exist as an administrative entity in 1967, and at that time MHT became a separate museum within the Institution. In 1969, MHT was renamed the National Museum of History and Technology (NMHT). In 1980 the Museum’s name was again changed to the National Museum of American History.
https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_218078 (accessed January 19, 2024)
Establishment of the Archives/Collections: The origins of the Archives Center took form in the early 1960s when science and technology curatorial staff began collecting manuscripts and archival material. The Museum staff were unable to provide the necessary access and management but understood the importance and significance of establishing an archive. Twenty years later, the Archives Center opened in 1983 with its first Head of Archives, John A. Fleckner.
Reporting Structure: The Archives Center is an archives and special collections unit that forms part of the Digital Access and Archives Department within the Department of Public History at the museum.
Staff: The staff is comprised of seven full-time staff, one part-time staff, one part-time digitization technician, and one contractor. We mentor interns every semester.
Services: Photocopying, digital scans, audio and video digitization, and custom services available. For more information contact us.
Overview of current holdings: More than 1,500 collections, totaling more than 21,000 cubic feet that document the history of technology, invention and innovation, business history, consumer culture, advertising, LGBTQ, disability rights, American music (especially Jazz), and popular culture as well as many other topics. Our collections contain paper-based textual records photographs, motion picture films, videotapes, sound recordings and born digital documents in a wide variety of formats.
Collection Highlights: We are known internationally for our manuscript collections documenting the history of science, technology, invention, and industrial history. The collections are a critical resource to understanding United States technological history.
We have strong holdings in engineering—civil, mechanical, and electrical—that document the built environment and tell some of the stories of design, construction, use, damage, reconstruction, rebirth, and celebration such as the Grand Central Terminal Records, and document the engineers, many of whom designed and built bridges in the United States (John A. Roebling Collection, Modjeski and Masters Company Records, and George S. Morison Collection).
Railroads such as Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Records and Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company Records reveal technological advances in transportation and commerce.
Chronicling telecommunications history are (Western Union Telegraph Company Records, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company Records, and the George Clark Radioana Collection) which highlight the economic history and impact of the applications of the telegraph and radio on American life.
Pharmaceutical records highlight drug development and the sales and marketing efforts aimed at both physicians and consumers (Parke, Davis Research Laboratory Records and Sterling Drug, Inc. Records).
Science and medicine holdings document a wide range of health fields and the contributions by individuals and organizations who influenced twentieth-century medicine and public health such as Dr. Edward H. Angle Orthodontics Papers, Science Action Coordinating Committee Papers, Project Bionics Artificial Documentation Collection, Disability Reference Collection; Leona Sanders Midwife’s Record Book, Museum of Menstruation Collection, and the Division of Science, Medicine and Society, HIV/AIDS Reference Collection.
Collections documenting manufacturing production and heavy industry show the importance of manufacturing in the United States, the individuals who performed the work, and the consumers who purchased it such as the Iowa Button Industry Collection, Arthur d’Arazien Industrial Photographs, Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Company Photographs and Other Materials, Singer Industrial Design Collection, Industry on Parade Film Collection and Women in Industry Photographs and Advertisements.
Independent, contemporary inventors and their inventions such as the SmartLevel, a high-tech electronic level (Wedge Innovations Records); instant cake mixes and household items (Charlotte Cramer Sachs Papers); Tupperware’s beginnings (Earl S. Tupper Papers); invention of the flexible straw (Joseph B. Friedman Papers); invention of the LaserPhaco to remove cataracts (Patricia Bath Papers); invention of the sports bra (Jogbra Inc. Records) and the invention of the Crock-Pot (Irving Naxon Papers) highlight inventors and innovators who have used their imaginations to create, improve, and promote inventions and innovations that shape our everyday lives.
Drinking Tube, Research and Development, 1937, n.d. Drawing of flexible straw in various positions. Joseph B. Friedman Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History 
Customers: Our reading room is open to the Smithsonian community and general public to conduct research on-site or remotely. Appointments are required for on-site research.
Archives Center Reading Room Photograph courtesy Alison Oswald, 2024.
Address: Constitution Avenue, N.W., between 12th and 14th Streets, Washington, D.C. 20560-0601
Website: https://americanhistory.si.edu/about/centers/archives
Contact: Phone: 202-633-3270; Email: archivescenter@si.edu
Archival Elements 