A living museum of great ideas
Innovation Museum
The stories behind the ideas, inventions, products, and companies that changed how the world makes, builds, and does business — where every exhibit is a doorway to the next.
Ways to explore
Follow an idea
Featured exhibits
Start hereApple
1976Made computing personal, then reshaped consumer electronics around design.
Barbie
1959Not just a toy — a platform for aspirational play that reshaped the toy industry.
Henry Ford
1903Turned the automobile from a luxury into something ordinary families could own.
Intel
1968Helped turn the microprocessor into the engine of the computing age.
Mattel
1945Turned toys into engineered, mass-manufactured consumer products.
McDonald's
1955Standardized fast food into a globally repeatable operation.
Explore the collection
25 profiles
Apple
1976Made computing personal, then reshaped consumer electronics around design.
Barbie
1959Not just a toy — a platform for aspirational play that reshaped the toy industry.
Bill Bowerman
A track coach whose tinkering reshaped how running shoes are made.
Frank Stronach
Built Magna from a single tool-and-die shop into a global auto-parts giant.
Haas Automation
1983Put capable CNC machine tools within reach of small and mid-sized shops.
Henry Ford
1903Turned the automobile from a luxury into something ordinary families could own.
Hot Wheels
1968A die-cast toy line built on precision tooling and low-friction engineering.
Intel
1968Helped turn the microprocessor into the engine of the computing age.
James Dyson
1991Turned a frustration with clogging vacuums into a design-led engineering company.
Kiichiro Toyoda
1937Founded Toyota's automobile business and seeded the ideas behind just-in-time production.
Magna International
1957Grew from a one-man tool shop into one of the world's largest automotive suppliers.
Mattel
1945Turned toys into engineered, mass-manufactured consumer products.
McDonald's
1955Standardized fast food into a globally repeatable operation.
Nike
1964Paired footwear engineering with brand-building to redefine athletic products.
Nikola Tesla
Championed the alternating-current systems that carry electricity across the modern grid.
Phil Knight
Co-founded Nike and built its distribution and brand.
Ray Kroc
Turned a single efficient restaurant into a global franchising system.
Richard and Maurice McDonald
Reinvented the restaurant kitchen as an assembly line for fast, consistent food.
Ruth Handler
Co-founded Mattel and created Barbie — proof that consumer-product innovation is real innovation.
SpaceX
2002Made orbital rockets routinely reusable, cutting the cost of reaching space.
Steve Jobs
Co-founded Apple and championed tightly integrated, design-led products.
Steve Wozniak
Engineered the early Apple computers that started the company.
Thomas Edison
Built one of the first industrial research laboratories and made electric light practical.
Toyota
1937Refined lean manufacturing into a discipline studied by factories worldwide.
Wright Brothers
Solved the problem of controlled, powered flight and opened the age of aviation.