by Sara Hanlon

The Columbus Museum of Art and Design (CMAD) will showcase industrial drawings from the Smithsonian Institution in a show that runs until August 20. After that date the show will continue its 11-city tour through 2006. This exhibition, entitled “Doodles, Drafts and Designs,” will display two centuries of American ingenuity and industry from inventor’s hand to investors’ boardrooms, from patent office to factory floor.
At the turn of the 19th Century, the United States was a country rich in natural resources and opportunity, but wanting in people, machines, and technology in general. Initially the nation’s entrepreneurs turned to England and Europe for these resources. Over time American inventors devised their own solutions to the challenges facing the country in the areas of manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, and daily life. Then, as now, they captured their creativity on paper, recording and reworking ingenious ideas into workable products.
The exhibit will display 74 original pencil sketches, ink drawings on linen, notebooks, patent drawings, trade literature covers, and other documents, which illustrate well-known consumer products such as the Singer sewing machine, the Maidenform bra, airtight Tupperware, and the Crayola crayon.
Industrial installations such as large-scale construction projects ranging from New York’s Grand Central Terminal to a hydraulic plant at Niagara Falls will be featured. Also on view will be the 1838 patent drawing of a waterwheel.
The material for this exhibition comes from two Smithsonian sources. The Smithsonian Institution Libraries acts as a public and an academic library, a scholarly resource and a general information service. Its collection of 1.5 million volumes is housed in 20 subsidiary libraries, which house 40,000 rare books and manuscripts, and the nation’s largest collection of commercial trade catalogs.
The second source is the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. This institution traces American heritage through exhibitions of social, cultural, scientific, and technological history. The American experience from Colonial life to the present is displayed in progressive interpretive exhibitions.
The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), the originator of this show and others, has been sharing the wealth of the Smithsonian collections and research programs with the entire country for 50 years. The mission of SITES is to connect Americans to their shared cultural heritage through a wide range of traveling exhibitions about art, science, and history.
The exhibition will be organized into four sections, and text panels will explain how each artifact is used to explore, explain, record, or persuade. Labels will detail the significance of each object’s creation. Together, objects and text encourage visitors to consider the designer’s creative thought processes, industrialization itself, and the importance of visual records to historians and future innovators. This show will appeal to audiences interested in art and design as well as history, technology, and popular culture.
There is also a strong educational component to the show. “Industrial Design–The Next Generation” is an in-depth look at the present reality and future of industrial invention. This aspect of the show is designed to appeal to grade school children between the ages of 10 and 14.
This multifaceted program will involve CMAD, the Bartholomew County Historical Museum, kidscommons, and Foundation for Youth. The director of the Historical Society will present a series of lectures on “home-grown inventions.” This is an opportunity to introduce the Reeves Pulley, among other things, to the younger generation.
Kidscommons will be utilizing a software program called, “Dr. Walt’s CAD for Kids.” The children will be guided through the process of turning their sketches and drawings into three-dimensional objects using the Power Outlet Computer Lab on the premises.
In collaboration with the above-named organizations and Foundation for Youth (FFY), the Columbus Museum has scheduled two field trips in July. Twenty children will be able to experience this program in depth on three separate Saturdays in August.
None of this happens without hard work on the part of the museum staff and strong financial backing from community supporters. Columbus is fortunate to have the backing of Marsh Inc., the international risk and insurance firm, Purdue University, the Cummins Foundation, Tata Consultancy Services, LHP Software, and Mr. and Mrs. John Wall. Columbus Museum of Art and Design is located upstairs at the Commons. Hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 4:00 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. CMAD is closed Mondays and major holidays.