Monica m. Smith's Profile

What I do, where I work
I am the Lead Project Coordinator at the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History (NMAH). I am currently working on the development of a 3,500 SF family-friendly, interactive exhibition tentatively titled “Places of Invention.” Previously I was the project historian for the Lemelson Center’s “Invention at Play” (IAP) traveling exhibition – ASTC is still managing the small version’s tour – and I am acting as the IAP project manager in preparation for the original exhibition’s reinstallation at NMAH in fall 2008 when the museum reopens. Other activities during my 13 years at the Lemelson Center include co-curating an exhibition titled “From Frying Pan to Flying V: The Rise of the Electric Guitar,” serving on several other exhibit curatorial teams, and acting as the educator for the small “Muppets and Mechanisms: Jim Henson’s Legacy” exhibition at NMAH in 2006.

I served as the editor of the Journal of Museum Education, co-published by the Museum Education Roundtable and Left Coast Press, from 2005-2008.

Lead Project Coordinator at Lemelson Center, National Museum of American History
Former Editor at Journal of Museum Education

Project Historian/Exhibits Specialist at Lemelson Center, National Museum of American History

"Sound Revolution: The Electric Guitar." Smithsonian Networks film [air date TBA]

2007
"Behind Every Invention There's A Story: Documenting Inventors at the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center." American Association of Museums conference

May 2007
"Invention at Work, Inventors at Play." Organization of American Historians conference

April 2006
"Invention at Play." Parents' Choice Foundation web site

2005
"The Electric Guitar: How We Got from Andres Segovia to Kurt Cobain." Invention and Technology magazine

Summer 2004

Monica M. Smith