The list of selected staff publications below may be searched by keyword or author and can be sorted by year.

Contributing Staff Member
Paul Manship, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.

Allison, David K., et. al.
The Price of Freedom: Americans at War Seattle: Marquand Books, 2004.

Catalog for the exhibition of the same name.

Allison, David K.
"Preserving Software in History Museums: A Material Culture Approach," in Ulf Hashagen, et.al., eds., History of Computing: Software Issues (Berlin: Springer, 2002).

Reviews issues related to preserving and exhibiting software in museums.

Allison, David K.
“Universal Product Code in Perspective: Context for a Revolution,” in Alan L. Haberman, ed. Twenty-Five Years behind Bars. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001).

Summarizes the history of the Universal Product Code.

Allison, David K.
"The ENIAC," in Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 63 (December 1999).

Provides a capsule history of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC).

Allison, David K.
“How People use Electronic Interactives in Information Age: People, Information & Technology” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums (1991).

Reviews experience of visitors using electronic interactives in museums.

Allison, David K.
“Archives of Data Processing: The National Museum of American History” in Archives of Data Processing History (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990).

Summarizes holdings of National Museum of American History in computer history.

Allison, David K.
“John A. Dahlgren: Innovator in Uniform,” in Captains of the Old Steam Navy (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986).

Provides a biographical review of John A. Dahlgren and his role as a naval innovator and developer of naval ordnance.

Allison, David K.
"U.S. Navy Research and Development since World War II," in Military Enterprise and Technological Change (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985).

Reviews the process of naval research and development in the post World War II era.

Allison, David K.
New Eye for the Navy: The Origin of Radar at the Naval Research Laboratory (Washington: GPO, 1981).

Provides an in-depth history of the development of radar at the Naval Research Laboratory in the 1920s and 1930s.

Allison, David K.
"The Origin of the Naval Research Laboratory," U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 105 (July, 1979).

Reviews the development of the Naval Research Laboratory.

Bird, William Lawrence
"American Family Robinson," "Cavalcade of America," "Theatre Guild on the Air," in Christopher Sterling, ed. The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio. Chicago and London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2003.

Bird Jr., William Lawrence
Holidays on Display. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.

The warm glow exuding from animated store windows never ceases to arouse a feeling of nostalgic comfort in many Americans during the frigid months of the holiday season. In “Holidays on Display,” Bird examines what makes these windows, along with lighting displays and parade floats, have such a strong appeal to consumers. He does this through a photographic and textual history of all aspects of the display world. The book tracks the evolution of the outdoor lighting, animated windows, and parade floats that fill the streets of America with “holiday spirit.” Bird’s seamless use of text and more than 100 never-before-seen images produces a vivid and telling history of emotionally stirring display.

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Bird Jr., William Lawrence
Paint by Number: The How-to Craze that Swept the Nation. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.

A history of the popular hobby from the vantage point of the entrepreneurs who created the kits, the consumers who filled them in and hung them in their homes, the artists who made them, and the critics who reviled them.

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Bird Jr., William Lawrence
“Better Living”: Advertising, Media, and the New Vocabulary of Business Leadership, 1935-1955. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1999.

A history of how big business learned to be both entertaining and persuasive when talking to the public. Examining the years from the Depression to postwar prosperity, "Better Living" follows the dissemination of a politically competitive claim of "more," "new" and "better" in industry and life. Beginning with the changes in business-government relations during the New Deal, this study looks at the ways in which politically active corporations and their leaders learned how to speak--when speaking was not enough.

Bird Jr., William Lawrence
Design for Victory: World War II Posters on the American Home Front with Harry R. Rubenstein. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998.

This study delves beneath the surface of colorful poster graphics, telling the stories behind their production and revealing how posters fulfilled the goals and needs of their creators. The authors describe the history of how specific posters were conceived and received, focusing on the workings of the wartime advertising profession and demonstrating how posters often reflected uneasy relations between labor and management.

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Bird Jr., William Lawrence
“Advertising, Company Voice.” “Cavalcade of America.” “General Electric Theater.” in Horace Newcomb, ed. Encyclopedia of Television. Chicago and London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997.

Bird Jr., William Lawrence
“Television in the Ike Age,” in Keith Melder, Hail to the Candidate: Presidential Campaigns from Banners to Broadcasts. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

Bird Jr., William Lawrence
“From the Fair to the Family,” in From Receiver to Remote Control: The T.V. Set. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1990, pp. 63–70.

Bird Jr., William Lawrence
“Enterprise and Meaning: Sponsored Film, 1939 1949,” History Today 39 (December 1989): pp. 24–30.

Bird Jr., William Lawrence
“A Spate of New Toys Invades America’s Living Rooms,” Smithsonian 20 (June 1989): pp. 82–85.

Bird Jr., William Lawrence
“A Suggestion Concerning James Smithson’s Concept of ‘Increase and Diffusion,’” Technology and Culture 24 (April 1983): pp. 246–255.

Read the article

Bowers, Dwight Blocker, with Ellen Roney Hughes
“The National Puppet Collection,” in American Puppetry: Collections, History and Performance. Eds. Phyllis Dircks, Steve Abrams. New York: American Theater Library Association, 2004.

Chapter explains the Museum's collection, its history and rationale.

Bowers, Dwight Blocker
The Ultimate Broadway Composers, Vols. 1-12. (annotator). 12 compact discs with program booklets. London, England: Pearl Recordings, 2000-04.

This 12-volume series is devoted to rare original cast recordings of musicals by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Sigmund Romberg.

Bowers, Dwight Blocker
Fascinating Rhythm: The Broadway Gershwin, 1919-1933 (annotator) 1 compact disc with program booket. New York: BMG Classics, 1998.

This archival recording focuses on remastered 78’s made by Victor Recording Company artists in the 1920s and 1930s.

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