Science & Innovation

Innovation is about more than inventing something new; it is about transforming and iterating on existing products, processes, or ideas. Women bring the full force of intellectual curiosity, imagination, and skills to bear on the problems, ideas, technologies of their time, producing life-changing innovations in fields as varied as science, technology, medicine, art, business, and politics.

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Collection Objects

Learn the stories of these women or explore more collections related to women in science. 

  • Green circle badge, reading "Staff No. 62" and "Cruft Laboratory Harvard University."
    Grace Murray Hopper’s Cruft Laboratory Badge
  • Barbara McClintock sits at a lab table. She uses a pipette to add liquid to a cell-culture dish.
    Portrait of Barbara McClintock
  • Ruby Hirose sits at a lab station. She wears a white lab coat and holds a pipette.
    Portrait of Ruby Hirose
  • In a hospital room, Virginia Apgar shows another practitioner how to assess newborn health. She holds an infant upside-down by their ankles and cradles the infants head.
    Portrait of Virginia Apgar
Smithsonian American Women book cover.

Smithsonian American Women

Remarkable objects and stories of strength, ingenuity, and vision from the National Collection.

Smithsonian American Women book cover.
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