Discover Our 2019 NIHF Inductees with a New Museum Exhibit

Each year, the National Inventors Hall of Fame® (NIHF) inducts a new class of world-changing inventors. By visiting the NIHF Museum, you can get to know our 2019 Inductees and gain a greater understanding of the extraordinary impact they’ve made.

When you visit, you’ll immediately see a panel exhibit introducing our latest Inductees. Next, be sure to visit the museum’s key attraction — the Gallery of Icons™. Here, you’ll see each of our nearly 600 Inductees and their patented inventions represented on a wall of tessellating hexagons arranged in chronological order.

Directly across from the Gallery of Icons you’ll find a new exhibit featuring each of our inspiring 2019 NIHF Inductees. This exhibit is also designed in chronological order so that it reflects the story of American innovation that is told through our wall of icons. Explore this exhibit to learn about our new Inductees in the context of the following eras of innovation:

Entrepreneurship in Emerging Industries

In the 1890s through the 1940s, innovators and entrepreneurs flourished in an array of rising industries.

At the start of our new exhibit, you’ll learn about 2019 NIHF Inductees who made significant contributions during this era. These Inductees include Andrew Higgins, inventor of the LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), or Higgins Boat; Joseph Lee, inventor of Bread Machines; and the inventors of the Portable Hand-Held Drill, S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker.

Inspiring Advances in Health

The 1950s and 1960s brought revolutionary discoveries that would improve and prolong our lives.

On your NIHF Museum visit, you’ll see that our 2019 Inductees include two teams who made a major impact on our health — Joseph Muhler and William Nebergall, inventors of Stannous Fluoride Toothpaste; and the inventors of Thiazide Diuretics (Chlorothiazide), John Baer, Karl H. Beyer Jr., Frederick Novello and James Sprague. 

Solutions for Modern Communication

Many innovations of the 1970s and 1980s laid the foundation for the ways in which we connect and communicate today.

2019 NIHF Inductees whose groundbreaking work emerged in this era include William J. Warner, inventor of the Digital Nonlinear Editing System; Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, inventors of the UNIX Operating System; Jeff Kodosky and James Truchard, inventors of Virtual Instrumentation – LabVIEW™; and Edmund O. Schweitzer III, inventor of the Digital Protective Relay.

Technology Designed for Everyone

The most recent era of innovation has directly benefitted the public and provided greater accessibility in fields from consumer technology to health care.

Our exhibit invites you to learn more about 2019 NIHF Inductees Chieko Asakawa, inventor of the Home Page Reader; David Walt, inventor of Microwell Arrays; and Rebecca Richards-Kortum, inventor of Medical Devices for Low-Resource Settings.

Visit the NIHF Museum

Start planning your visit to our museum, located just outside Washington, D.C., at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. You can also take a virtual tour with Google Arts & Culture and discover all our NIHF Inductees by visiting our online database.