Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Mike Augspurger Innovative Lives Presentation and Oral History

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0689
Creators:
Augspurger, Mike
Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.
Cater, Anita
Dates:
1998
2001
2000
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.25 Cubic feet
Repository:
Mike Augspurger was born in 1956 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Working with steel land titanium, he invented an all terrain rear wheel drive handcycle. Collection contains approximately eight hours of video footage documenting Augspurger discussing his life and work and a promotional video titled One-Off Handcycle.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection contains seven (7) hours of original (BetaCam SP) recordings and eight (8) hours of reference (viewing) copies documenting the life and work of Mike Augspurger, inventor of the One-Off All Terrain Handcycle. The recordings include a presentation by Augspurger for the Lemelson Center's Innovative Lives Program. Audience participants are students from Jefferson Junior High School (Washington, D.C.), Nysmith School (Herndon, Virginia), Nicholas Orem Middle School (Hyattsville, Maryland), and Rosa Parks Middle School (Olney, Maryland). The collection also contains interviews with Leni Fried, Augspurger's wife, and Provi Morillo, an owner of a One-Off Handcycle.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is organized into three series.
Series 1, Original Videos, 2000
Series 2, Reference Videos (viewing copies), 1998; 2000
Series 3, Supplemental Documentation, 2001

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Mike Augspurger (1956-) was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he built, modified, and raced bicycles, motorcycles, and go-karts from a young age. He attended motorcycle mechanic school at the Indiana Institute of Technology and received his B.A. from Hampshire College in 1981. Augspurger founded Merlin Metalworks in 1987 with business partners and began using titanium to manufacture bicycle frames because of its flexibility, corrosion resistance, and lightweight nature. It was his friendship with neighbor Bob Hall, a wheelchair racing athlete, which prompted him to create an all terrain arm-powered cycle. He founded One-Off Titanium, Inc., to design, manufacture, and custom-build handcycles in 1989.
The Jermone and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation was founded in 1995 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History through a generous gift from the Lemelson Foundation. The Center's mission is: to document, interpret, and disseminate information about invention and innovation; to encourage inventive creativity in young people; and to foster an appreciation for the central role invention and innovation play in the history of the United States. The Innovative Lives series brings together museum visitors and, especially, school-aged children and American inventors to discuss inventions and the creative process and to experiment and play with hands-on activities related to each inventor's product. This collection was recorded by the Innovative Lives Program of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.

Administration

Author
Kimberly Tarr
Processing Information
Processed by Kimberly Tarr (project archivist), December, 2009; supervised by Alison Oswald, archivist.
Existence and Location of Copies
Original videos digitized in 2014. See repository for details.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was recorded by the Innovative Lives Program of the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation on May 5, 2000. The Innovative Lives series brings Museum visitors and American inventors together to discuss inventions and the creative process and to experiment and play with hands-on activities related to each inventor's product.
Custodial History
The collection was transferred from the Lemelson Center to the Archives Center in 2001.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use. Series 1, Original Videos, 2000, is stored off-site and may not be used by researchers. Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives.
Preferred Citation
Mike Augspurger Innovative Lives Presentation and Oral History, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. The Archives Center does not own rights to the promotional video One-Off Handcycle. Reproduction permission and fees from the Archives Center may apply. Copies of releases on file.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Inventors -- 20th century Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Inventions -- 1980-2000 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews -- 1980-2000 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bicycles Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Videotapes Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Oral history -- 1990-2000 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mountain bikes Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
BetaCam SP (videotape format) Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bicycle industry Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Slides Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
One-Off Titanium Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives Center, National Museum of American History
P.O. Box 37012
Suite 1100, MRC 601
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
Business Number: Phone: 202-633-3270
Fax Number: Fax: 202-786-2453
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