Inventing America: The Interplay of Technology and Democracy in Shaping
American Identity
November 2-4, 2006, Washington, D.C. and Charlottesville, Va.  

Throughout our nation's history, Americans have enthusiastically embraced
new technology, and have been willing to experiment with new political ideas
and practices.  Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin
Franklin, this conference will examine how Franklin, Jefferson, and their
contemporaries saw technology as integral to the creation of a new form of
government, a democratic republic, as well as how Americans since
Franklin's time have wrestled with the interplay of technology and
democracy.
	
"Inventing America" will begin the evening November 2 at the National
Archives in Washington, D.C. with a presentation by Walter Isaacson, author
of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and moderated by Archivist of the
United States Allen Weinstein.  The conference will continue on November 3-4
at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville with sessions devoted to
technology and its relationship to democratic values, invention, political
economy, and the practice of democracy.

The conference is sponsored by the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the
Study of Invention and Innovation and co-sponsored by the National Archives,
the Department of Science, Technology and Society at U.Va.'s School of
Engineering and Applied Science, and the Robert H. Smith International
Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.

"Inventing America" is free and open to the public. For more
information about the conference, including sessions, speakers, directions,
and parking, please visit the Lemelson Center website at
invention.smithsonian.org/events.

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