The World Is Yours: "Unheralded American Inventors" (aired April 4, 1937)

The World Is Yours was the Smithsonian’s first radio program. It was a weekly thirty-minute radio show that aired from June 7, 1936 to May 10, 1942. Funded by the Works Progress Administration and presented as part of the Educational Radio Project, it is considered one of the most successful educational radio programs of the 1930s. The scripts were written in consultation with Smithsonian staff and over the life of the show, the programs covered virtually every aspect of the Smithsonian’s collections and research. Did you know that Joseph Francis invented the first metal life-saving boat? Or that Gail Borden invented the process for creating condensed milk? This episode, titled “Unheralded American Inventors,” introduces listeners to these two, as well as other unknown inventors of everyday things, such as early prototypes of the typewriter.

Discover more about this program in this collection.