Very cool (small) free museum in the patent office. It has nice interactive displays, overall a well put together museum. Didnt take very long to go through (if you dont read every plaque). We enjoyed it.

Off the beaten path, but worth the visit. Fun, interactive information and historical contributions. Good for all ages.

It is a small museum, on the other side of the small gift shop, inside the Patent Office building. You have to enter through the gift shop. The staff is polite and helpful. There is an interactive section for kids.

Needs a less prison feel to it or courthouse a lil morbid.

Interesting museum, but very, very small. I was hoping to see many models and historic items but was disappointed. We enjoyed reading the displays and checking out the few hands-on things. You can see this entire presentation in an hour or so. Its a quick walk from the King Street metro station, so its super easy to get to. The Inventors Hall of Fame is cool, and the searchable computer database was fun.

USPTO nice little museum to learn about patents, inventors and how they affect our daily lives. Wish there was more on Tesla #rainyday #accessible #mustsee #learn #culture #freeforstudents

This a great place to go with children and as an adult. I have been here recently with my children which was fun for all of them. I went here recently for a work event and really enjoyed the ability to have a closer look at the displays .All in this place is worth coming to more than once.

The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of highly significant technology. Founded in 1973, its primary mission is to honor the people responsible for the great technological advances that make human, social and economic progress possible. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operates a museum in Alexandria, Virginia, and a former middle school in Akron, Ohio, and sponsors educational programs, a collegiate competition, and special projects all over the United States to encourage creativity among students.[1]National Inventor of FameDisplay of inductees in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in AlexandriaAbbreviationNIHFFormation1973TypeNPOLegal statusOrganizationPurposeHonor[ing] the women and men responsible for the great technological advances that make human, social and economic progress possible.Headquarters3701 Highland Park N.W.North Canton, Ohio 44720LocationAlexandria, Virginia (Hall of Fame museum)Region servedUnited StatesMembership603 inventorsOfficial languageEnglishAffiliationsInvent Now AmericaWebsiteinvent.orgAs of 2020, 603 inventors have been inducted, mostly constituting historic persons from the past three centuries, but including about 100 living inductees.[2] An NIHF committee chooses an annual inductee class in February from nominations accepted from all sources. Nominees must hold a U.S. patent of significant contribution to the U.S. welfare, and which advances science and useful arts.[3] The 2020 class included 22 inventors.

Not a destination museum, but if youre in the area its worth dropping in to see this museum. They have a fun exhibit of real versus counterfeit goods, everyone in your party should place their bets on which is real and which is fake. Whoever gets the most right can buy lunch in the cafeteria downstairs.

One of my familys favorite museum. It is small, but interactive and informative. Entrepreneurs of all ages should visit this museum.

Fascinating features for such a small museum. Yet so much of our everyday experiences are based on patents of ingenious people. The museum was recently expanded, Summer 2018, to include new exhibits and a larger museum store. There are very nice gifts here. Kids will be inspired once they visit.

What a great little place! My toddler and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Free admission, lots of pictures, info, and stories about different inventions, and several hands-on things. One of our favorites was the 1965/2015 Mustang that you can climb in. Definitely recommend visiting!

It was great to see all of the trademarks and inventions. Learned a lot!

Informative little museum in the corner of the main USPTO building. It was a good stop on our way through Alexandria.

This place is free and will take your about an hour to 90 minutes. Exhibits are heavy on ready but completely awesome. Kids will love the kids room with lots of interactive stuff including robots you can make move and adults will love the dude by side mustangs from 1965 and 2015 that you can sit in and see the changes. Also the room where you can mess with your own football reporting and move yellow line. Pretty awesome.

Its small, so its maybe worth 30 min for kids, but for adults you can be there for an hour or 2 looking through all the different displays and fun facts

This is a great place to explore the history of our parents and trademarks. What a fun place to visit. A real blast from the past.

Educational and free! Def go if youre in the area

Great place to learn and discover the history of who created things that we are usually using today. It is free and I was able to tour the place within an hour.

A very interesting museum to see inventions and who came up with the idea for it.

Located within the Patent Office building, the museum is not large but is interactive and full of information. You will spend an hour and a half at most if you read everything. It was informative.

For the record - it is NOT kid friendly despite being advertised as such. Anytime the kids spoke above a whisper, the curator would come reprimand them. Other kids were told not to sit in the model car which is “for instagram photos.” Asked to remove strollers after being told we could bring them in. I wouldn’t be disappointed if it weren’t advertised as kid friendly and “even for the youngest inventors.” Otherwise a great museum.

I learned a lot hear

This is a very cool museum with great exhibits and several interactive pieces. It was very informative and fun.

4.5 / 590 minutes is all you should need. Good childrens interactive experience. The 65 / new Mustang display is not back until February

Great place for the family. And its free. YAY!!

Sweet place. Go if you are a Tesla fan.

Smallish but informative.

Nice little museum with interesting exhibits. Worth the visit. Great little gift shop with quirky and nerdy gifts

Great free museum. Interesting displays

Quaint small museum. Interesting information on things we use everyday and how they were developed. Hands on stuff to keep things interesting

Meh... would be ok for a quick (its only one room) visit with kids. At least it is free.

Had a few hours in Alexandria Va while waiting on our Amtrak train ride home and we walked from the station to this museum. We thoroughly enjoyed our adventure and the walk there and back was very nice.

Another hidden gem! Fun to read and play with all the displays. Beats the crowds always at the smithsonian museums. And no dont touch exhibits. A perfect place to take young kids. Loved it!

Small but neat little museum!

What an awesome place!

Great concept and the exhibits are cool. The place is a bit small though

Small but really cool to check out with several interactive displays.

Small but fun & inspiring!

There are not welcoming children. I thought I did not want my taxes used for this place.

Fascinating and interesting museum, I was here summer 2018 with the family they like it been here

Excellent museum. Well worth the visit

Small museum inside the Patent and Trademark office. Lots of interesting exhibits

Just OK. WAS DISAPPOINTED AT HOW SMALL IT WAS.

Super interesting. Very educational.Also fun.

If science is not an interest of yours, then you will still enjoy this meseum. It is more like a self-guide meseum where everything you need to know about what is inside the meseum and information about the meseum is right in front of you. They also have guided video and audio guide inside the meseum with more details about each item. However, they do have a meseum tour guide if needed.A great place to take your child and or children as well.The front desk lady is very kind and helpful. There is also a mini shop to buy meseum memorabilia; t-shirts, mugs, books, pens, and other items.

The recent remodeling of the museum has significantly expanded its offerings and exhibits. The current exhibition featues three notable exhibits starting with excellent examples of middle school through college age student projects that have gone on two be patented and making real world impact. Second there is a small but informative exhibit on photographic advances from early plate cameras, through polaroid instant, to the current ubiquitus CCD cameras in cell phones. How many people would guess thay nearly 100 new CCD cameras are currently being made every second! Third there is a relatively large exhibit sponsored by Qualcom that takes you from the begging of cell phones to the recent advances in 5G technology. All in all while a small musuem that packs a lot of information in a manageable setting that is perfect for school age children and up that can be seen in about 2 hours while visiting other sites near Alexandria VA.

Fun little museum with lots of learning opportunities. Good for a quick museum visit!

Really awesome museum if you ever have the chance to go it is worth your time.

Went today 4.01.16 and museum was closed and under construction. We hadnt phoned ahead. You might want to.

We both had Fathers that had patents so we looked for seeing the museum. A small but very wroth while Museum in the impressive building that also housing the Patent office.

I never knew about this museum till now

Pretty cool for a quick 45 minutes or so

Aimed at kids but enjoyable for adults. Takes an hour or so.

Small museum located in lobby of office building, but very interesting.

What a hidden gem!

Kind of disappointing.

Great museum

Interesting

Interaction activities for kids

Hidden treasure.

Not so big, but free.