When Alexander Graham Bell received his first telephone patent in 1876, the device was still something of a curiosity. Within two years, though, the first telephone exchanges were opening as the device caught on. Bell, newly famous, moved to DC in…

While it’s currently the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Old Patent Office reflects an era when scientific invention propelled the American economy and began to mold the national character. Although more than a…