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NIST Museum and History Program

The NIST Museum and History Program, as part of the Information Services Office, aims to increase awareness of the achievements and history of NIST through research, collection, and exhibition of scientific instruments, archival materials, and other historical artifacts.

Title: Landmarks in the History of Natural Catastrophe Modeling: An exhibit from Johns Hopkins University and the NIST Museum; Quote: “In catastrophe modeling, the length of the list of unknowns makes one very humble… but decisions must still be made, if only on order of magnitude estimates.” — Don G. Friedman; Graphics of the Don G. Friedman calculating risk formula
New Exhibit
Is the Fare Fair? exhibit Hero image for exhibit link. Black and White image of 1921 Checker taxi in Washington, D.C. with the exhibit title 'Is the Fare Fair? Taximeter Testing in the 1920s and Today' in yellow at the top of the image.
New Exhibit
Jacob Rabinow
NIST History
NIST Digital Archives
NIST Digital Archives
Museum Exhibits
Museum Exhibits

News and Updates

McKee-Beshers

Field of Dreams

A field off River Road, about 10 miles from NIST Gaithersburg campus, once held the world’s largest radio telescope and was the site of the discovery of
The images in the Camera for Photographing Eclipse Photographic Collection are in the public domain and are not subject to copyright in the United States. However, please pay special attention to the individual works to make sure there are no copyright re

Solar Eclipse 1936

NIST physicist Irvine C. Gardner designed a 4-meter long eclipse camera with a 23-centimeter astrographic lens to study a total solar eclipse in 1936. The data
Black and white photo of NIST’s first librarian, Dr. Aristide Fanti

QA to QC Thanks to Dr. Fanti

If you have ever discovered a useful library book in the QA to QC shelf number range (Mathematics, Astronomy, and Physics), you have NIST’s Aristide Fanti to
Merritt Birky in white shirt and tie leaning over and measuring laser rod distortion

Cool It, Hot Rod: Improving Early Lasers

In the first decade after the invention of the laser one challenge to improving laser quality was the distortion of a laser’s rod due to absorption of heat

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