Linda Hall Library
of Science, Engineering & Technology

THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL: Innovation in the Home

September 28 to March 16, 2012

The Linda Hall Library's year-long celebration and examination of the history of innovation continues with This Time It's Personal: Innovation in Your Home, opening September 28, 2011.

Visitors to This Time It's Personal will be surprised to discover technology's influence in every aspect of their lives from the mundane (carpet fibers) to the sophisticated (laser lights in television remote controls).

Various galleries throughout the first floor of the Library will represent rooms in a contemporary family home. The installation will include a kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, and garage. Curators Nancy Green and Eric Ward highlight more than 65 household inventions used daily, and illustrate how these items are the result of decades - and sometimes centuries - of technological innovations.

Journal articles, rare books, and patents from the Library's collection will demonstrate the pathway of innovation for these common household items. Visitors will leave with a sense that even a quiet night at home can be a walk through the history of modern innovation.