National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum

We took our kids to the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum in Alexandria, VA for a homeschool project and it was nothing short of amazing. The staff were friendly and helpful, and the museum is clean, organized, and easy to navigate. The exhibits are interactive and packed with information you won’t find anywhere else. Our children left inspired and full of new ideas perfect for homeschoolers and school field trips. Admission is free, which makes it even better for families and groups. The museum is open Monday–Friday 10 a.m.–4 p.m. and the first Saturday of each month 11 a.m.–3 p.m. (closed Sundays and federal holidays). There’s no on-site lot but plenty of paid parking nearby, including the USPTO East Garage and other garages around John Carlyle Street; we had no trouble finding a space. Use Google Maps to find exact directions and nearby parking options search “National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum” or open it in Maps for turn-by-turn directions and parking details. Plan for about an hour or two to see everything. If you’re bringing a group, call ahead to arrange a tour. We highly recommend this museum to anyone wanting their kids to experience the world of inventors in a hands-on, inspiring way.

This is a fun museum, full of interesting information, games and gadgets. With 9-10 years old kids, we spent about 2 hours here and had a lot of fun. The cute souvenir shop is nice as well. And the best part - It is free!

This is a small FREE museum at the USPTO building near the Hoffman theater. All about inventions and patents and it was very interesting and inspiring. It is packed with info and we took a group of kids about K to 4th grade. Sometimes the bigger museums can be too much so this was just right. There was a tour and scavenger hunt and it was so great. Definitely call ahead before you go since we arranged our visit and I don’t know how that compares with a walk-in experience 😁

This hall of fame is a little, tiny area of the beautiful US Patent and Trademark Office Building. It is well stocked with some amazing exhibit that could easily be gone through in 30 minutes to an hour. There is some construction as they add on to this wonderful little place.

Nice little out of the way museum which is small but has a lot of information. Exhibits on black inventors, women inventors, how trademark works, and other displays. Family friendly and kids would enjoy most of it. They would love the tiny robotic cars. That didn't seem to follow the marker line I made. Oh well. Had a nice gift shops with a good selection. And very friendly staff.

Nice free museum to visit when you are in the area. There is information on patent holders and their inventions. 45 minutes should get you through all the exhibits. They even have 2 half's of a Ford Mustang on display.

What a hidden gem! We are spoiled by the museum scene here but this one was a delightful surprise. We brought our Girl Scout troop here and they were engaged for ~2 hours. Inspired lots of fun ideas & good questions from our curious future inventors

Free museum about inventors who obtained patents. We were fortunate enough to have a short tour, but it is self guided.

Small but cool museum for kiddos! My husband and I wanted something fun but something new. This place came across to make a quick trip to Alexandria. Alexandria is well known for art galleries and museums but this was a new and interesting place to visit. AND no ticket is required! It is located inside of US Patent & Trademark Office building. You can park in their garage ($3 per hour). We were confused when we walked into the building but the security guards were very nice and kindly directed us where this museum was. I enjoyed learning different invention and how/when it started. I think it is very important to highlight creativity and innovation to children and amongst ourselves while we live in the society where it changes day to day basis. I would recommend!

The National Inventors Hall of Fame is located inside in the same building of the United States patent and trademark office. Look on this Yelp page for the photo of the building this little museum is located in to make it easier to find if you wish to visit. My husband and I decided to check out this little place on a Thursday morning around 11 am since our hotel (Hilton Garden Inn) was about 0.5 mile away. I really wasn't expecting much but was surprised to have enjoyed my time here. This museum has free admission and recognizes engineers and inventors who invented some significant king of technological, who have a U.S. patent. Here you can actually look up some of the inventors with patents by state, by year, by category. Please note that when you come into this museum, you will walk through their gift shop before getting inside to see all of the neat stuff on display. There are numerous of exhibits on display with documents from important collections of patents. There is also some interesting little video clips you can watch about some of the remarkable and highly intelligent folks that created a lot of interesting things (that has truly significantly impacted your life). But what I really liked the most about this little museum is the interactive kiosks. I liked playing some of the games to identify the trademark logo/ image, video or song to a specific brand. I also liked testing my knowledge with random history of these trademarked companies. And lastly, I liked testing myself to see if I can tell the difference between a real item and the fake item (for example, there is a real designer purse in a display case, alongside a fake. Are you able to tell the difference?). I was able to identify the real one each time. Although this little museum does appear to be small, you can find 1-2 hours worth of interesting things to learn and do during your visit. Not bad for a free museum.

Cool museum with free admission. You only need 30 minutes to check everything out. They have things like the original beer cooler, which is awesome!

Great museum to geek out in! This museum is located in the main building of the United States patent and trademark office. It is a little hard to find and out-of-the-way from the other National museums. But if you are in the old town Alexandria area it is definitely worth stopping by. Although it does not occupy much square footage it is packed with information through out patent history. The museum contains some amazing and life-changing inventions everybody. Each video screen has a sound bubble above it, so that sound is directed downwards. You stand right underneath the bubble to hear what the video is playing, and no audio from the other TVs can be heard. If you love cameras they have a special section dedicated to the history of photographic inventions. It showcases actual Proto types of cameras throughout history, which is absolutely amazing.

The museum was so fascinating and the employees were amazing!The lady told my family and I all about trademarks and patents. It was very interactive so I would recommend taking kids. It was an amazing experience and I would love to go back later in the year!

A little slice of innovation history! The National Inventors Hall of Fame has really stepped up their game to make the museum at the USPTO great! Not only does it include a deep dive into many of their Inductees, they also have a one of a kind Ford car in the museum and an exclusive Qualcomm progression of Smart Technology. If you are looking for something to do in Alexandria, stop by the museum and spend a few hours getting familiar with the patent system and Inductees of the HOF!

I have to disagree with the previous poster. The Hall of Fame is not a "little museum". I would describe it as more of an exhibit than a large historical record of patents/trademarks. I was sadly disappointed as the Patent Office complex is quite large and the space dedicated to the "museum/Hall of Fame" is very small. The space dedicated to selling t-shirts and trinkets is almost as big as the displays themselves. Since it is out of the way to come see, I would save your time to apply it to other attractions in the area. The Patent Office could have done much better to show off American ingenuity.

My visit to the National Inventors Hall of Fame was great! It exceeded my expectations and I found it to be very informative and fun. The information was very up to date - and included a lot of today's technology. The person working there was very helpful and informative. I have to disagree strongly with the person who said that the gift shop was as big as the exhibits.... not true. If you are in the Alexandria area and have an hour or two, I would definitely stop by!

A fun little museum in the atrium of the US Patent Office's Madison Building. The exhibits change a couple of times a year and have a patent- or trademark-inspired theme. Definitely worth stopping by if you've got an hour or so to kill.