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Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Education: Spotlight Biography Inventors

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides information on American inventors Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Singer, Wilbur Wright, Thomas Alva Edison, Elias Howe, and Alexander Graham Bell. It offers pictures from and...
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Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Technology of the 1800s

For Students 9th - 10th
[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...
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PBS

Pbs: American Experience: Forgotten Inventors

For Students 9th - 10th
Here is an accounting of a few inventions, most of which were invented in the 1800s, that often are overlooked. Find out about how the can opener was invented as well as that clothing staple, the denim jeans.
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Other

American Artifacts: The Imaginative Inventor

For Students 9th - 10th
Just for fun. A website with a list of strange inventions by would-be entrepreneurs. Click on any to see a picture and description of the device.
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PBS

American Experience: Technology Timeline: 1752 1990

For Students 9th - 10th
Short descriptions of important technological innovations produced in America and the date of their introduction.
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Smithsonian Institution

Lemelson Center: Tracing the Roots of America's Motion Picture Industry

For Students 9th - 10th
In the late 1800's, Thomas Edison and his fellow inventors were key in the American film industry's boom.This web site provides a podcast and accompanying transcript tracing the roots of the film industry in America. Podcast [21:27]