Invention Notebooks (Originals)
name: label: Collection Inventor
content: Lemelson, Jerome H., 1923-1997
setName: label: See more items in
content: Jerome H. Lemelson Papers
label: See more items in
content: Jerome H. Lemelson Papers / Series 1: Invention Notebooks
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1949-1994
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1598, Subseries 1.1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Subseries 1.1 contains 114 original bound notebooks and some loose pocket notebooks detailing Jerome H. Lemelson's invention ideas through written descriptions and sketches. The bound notebooks are paginated and handwritten, primarily in ink, some pencil, and are witnessed with signatures and dates. Many of the bound notebooks include handwritten remarks in the marginalia, and on the recto and verso pages. On some recto pages, small pockets containing loose materials were found and remain in situ. Almost all of the notebooks contain on page one the language, "This Notebook is the Property of Jerome H. Lemelson, Reward to Finder If Lost." Business cards, notes, and other loose materials found in notebooks remain in situ. 

The covers of the bound notebooks also contain handwritten notes, often the date, volume number, and in some instances, a topical reference, e.g. lasers, followed by page numbers.  Many bound notebooks are stamped "confidential" and carry a Bates number, a method of sequentially numbering pages with a reference number used by the legal profession during the discovery stage of preparations for trial.