Do you have an inventor in the family? Take a look at the MIND Database of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. The Modern INventors Documentation (MIND) database pulls together information from hundreds of archives across the United States and contained over 1,700 records in June of 2006 (the last date for which I have numbers). It identifies the locations and contents of invention-related archival materials in the United States.
The database may be searched using a simple word search, or an advanced Boolean search.
Check out the MIND Database at: http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/MIND_Search_Basic.aspx
