A new exhibit at the Peoria Riverfront Museum features patents signed by some of the first Presidents.
“The Fire of Genius: Presidents and Patents” is made possible by a donation from Richard and Rebecca Beem of Chicago. Richard is a patent attorney and acquired a collection of original patent documentation signed by early presidents from an auction in 2006.
“They don't require that much maintenance. But they do require a place,” Richard said. “And we're grateful for this place, the Peoria Riverfront Museum for hosting this collection, for displaying it, for presenting this exhibition.”
The documents include patents for a churn, a wooden still, a process for “dressing flax and hemp,” and one of the first washing machines. The inventions bear the signatures of presidents like John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The signatures account for seven of the first eight presidents.
Richard says the collection had spent the last 15 years on the walls of his own Chicago offices, occasionally shown in a private event.
“We wanted these patents to inspire people,” he said. “We wanted them to inspire young people to think maybe, ‘I could get a patent, maybe I could invent something.’”
Museum President and CEO John Morris says the exhibit furthers the museum’s mission to “build confidence and spark learning.”
“Confidence is the absolute essential element to invention,” he said. “The idea that you can do something no one else has ever done before requires confidence. And here at the Peoria Riverfront Museum we get 18,000 Every Student Initiative students coming through here every year to learn about the Duryea Automobile.”
Other than the mechanical achievements of the Duryea brothers, the exhibit also dedicates some space to showcasing other historic Peoria area innovations like the first white cane, the mass production of penicillin and various products at Caterpillar.
The exhibit includes some modern patents as well, assembled in part by Peoria Next Innovation Center Director Michael Stubbs.
“A patent itself becomes a public acknowledgement of what you've invented," Stubbs said. "And it allows other people to see it. And that allows other people to invent on top of it, right?”
One of the featured inventions is a toy construction system called Lux Blox, founded by Mike and Heather Acerra from Galesburg. Another part of the exhibit explains Dr. Luke Haverhals of Natural Fiber Welding’s process to produce manufacturing materials from biomass and waste. Further on in the exhibit, visitors can see Bradley graduate Michael Kuzma’s self-playing guitar.
“Hopefully, you know, we'll be able to expand and improve and move forward,” Subbs said. “And I'll be able to tell more stories about some of the new excellent things that are coming out of Peoria.”
Typography placed on the walls of the exhibit includes a quote from Abraham Lincoln where he calls the patent system “the fire of genius.” Richard says Lincoln was the only president to hold a patent himself, inventing a buoy system to help ships navigate the Sangamon River.
Another wall is embossed with the text that creates the patent system in the first article of the Constitution. In those early years, George Washington signed just 150 patents, now, Richard says, the United States issues about 10,000 new patents every two weeks.
“This is just the beginning,” Morris said. “The Peoria Riverfront Museum is in the confidence building business and there’s no better subject to build confidence in our region than invention.”
The exhibit is on display at the Riverfront Museum through early June.
