Curated OER
Black Inventor Online Museum: William Purvis
Read about the African-American inventor, William Purvis, who improved the fountain pen. Included is a list of his other inventions.
Black Past
Black Past: Woods, Granville T.
A fascinating encyclopedia article about Granville Woods, a black inventor,often referred to as the "black Edison."
Black Past
Black Past: Jan E. Matzeliger (1852 1887)
A brief encyclopedia entry about the life of inventory, Jan Matzeliger, whose invention revolutionized the shoe-making industry.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Iconoscope 1923
American inventor Vladimir Zworykin, the "father of television," conceived two components key to that invention: the iconoscope and the kinescope.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Lee De Forest
American inventor Lee De Forest was a pioneer of radio and motion pictures. He received more than 300 patents over the course of his lifetime, the most important of which was for a three-electrode vacuum tube, or triode, that he called...
Library of Congress
Loc: About George Westinghouse
This is a detailed biography about George Westinghouse with a link to an article about Westinghouse from the Wilmerding News, 1904. Read about his many inventions that improved railroad safety.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: Biographies: Benjamin Bradley
Learn about inventor and African-American slave, Benjamin Bradley, developer of a steam engine large enough to run the first steam-powered warship.
Have Fun With History
Have Fun With History: Science and Invention
Module with links to resources and videos on science, inventions and technology of the 19th and 20th Centuries that changed the course of American history.
Energy for Sustainable Development
Esd Bulgaria: Kids & Energy: Energy Pioneers: Gertrude Elion (1918 1999)
A profile of Gertrude Belle Elion, an American biochemist and pharmacologist and a Nobel Prize winner. She struggled to find her place in the male-dominated scientific world, and went on to become the first woman to be inducted into the...
PBS
Pbs: Who Made America?: Innovators: Cyrus Mc Cormick
A Virginia farmer invented a mechanical reaper, then harvested profits in the Midwest's exploding grain belt, innovating credit, service, and sales practices that became essential parts of American big business.
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: Social Studies: Grade 4: Inventions and the Great Plains
Read and study the sources about inventions from the late 1800s. As you read the three sources, think about the effects that the inventions had on the American economy.
Digital History
Digital History: Resistance to Technological Innovation
Hinderances to technological advances included poor education and hostility to innovation and experimentation. See how this opposition was overcome by the many smalltime tinkerers and inventors who ignited people's interest in technology.
Federation of American Scientists
Fas: Memorial Tribute for Luis W. Alvarez
Read a tribute to Hispanic-American scientist and Nobel Peace prize winner, Luis Alvarez by a fellow scientist. He gives a very detailed account of his life.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Technology of the 1800s
[Free Registration/Login Required] Article considers the inventions and innovations in communication, transportation, and manufacturing that drove America forward in the nineteenth century. Includes a link to an interactive history of...
A&E Television
History.com: 6 Little Known Pioneers of Aviation
From an early glider experimenter to the first man to fly solo around the world, here are six lesser-known pilots and inventors who made their mark on aviation.
Agnes Scott College
Agnes Scott College: Grace Murray Hopper
Short biography includes a picture and references.
Yale University
Yale: The Ada Project: Grace Murray Hopper
A concise biography that includes personal as well as professional information.
University of Houston
University of Houston: Engines of Our Ingenuity: No. 435: Hedy Lamarr, Inventor
Read about the remarkable actress Hedy Lamarr who, together with composer George Antheil, invented a technology that used frequency hopping to improve the effectiveness of Allied torpedoes during WWII. Their invention was not put into...
PBS
Who Made America?: George Eastman
A quick "snapshot" at the life and worldly contributions of George Eastman. See why he was chosen as one of America's great innovators and better understand how his photography processes transformed our society.
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: The Wright Stuff
Companion website to the PBS documentary on the Wright Brothers and their contributions to aviation.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: On Time: Alarm Clock
People awoke not with the rising of the sun, but with the rude, mechanical jangling of an alarm clock at their bedsides. The clock, rather than the sun or any rhythms of nature or body, determined the patterns of life and work. People...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Invention of the Week: Whitcomb Judson
This site from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provides a brief but factual account of the role Whitcomb Judson played in the development of the zipper.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Libraries:industrial Drawings at the Smithsonian: Doodles & Drafts
Drawing is a key element in an inventor's skill set. When it comes to the working out of new ideas, inventors turn to pencil and paper. Mixing art and science, this exhibition site showcases a collection of industrial drawings that...
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