NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A new museum dedicated to Black inventors and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education is set to open in 2026.
"The building of this museum is long overdue," James Howard, BIHOF executive director told 1010 WINS. "The expenditure aims to reveal a story of many many layers."
The idea to open the Black Inventors Hall of Fame Museum came from Howard who observed the absence of any Black inventors on the cover of a special issue of Times magazine, which featured America's top 100 inventors.
“Naturally, on the front cover, they had Thomas Edison, they had Henry Ford, Nikola Tesla and all of that, (but) not a single Black face was on the front cover," Howard told Mosaic.
Within the magazine, he found minor references to Dr. Daniel Hill Williams and Dr. Charles Drew, two Black surgeons who revolutionized medical practices.
However, the overall lack of recognition for Black inventors in the magazine deeply resonated with him and during one of his interviews about his career, he was asked about why there weren’t any museums dedicated to Black inventors.
“I didn’t have an answer for him and then he said to me, ‘Why don’t you start a Black Inventors Hall of Fame Museum,’ I slept on that, and three months later, I started Black Inventors Hall of Fame Museum,” Howard said.
The museum will be a 31,000-square-foot facility and will feature state-of-the-art classrooms, a theater, a Metaverse library, a startup incubator, and a Legends Hall.
The museum's objective is to highlight the achievements of Black inventors, particularly from the Golden Era in the United States.
"We’ve identified our basic program needs in terms of key features such as a 150-seat theatre, a learning center, three to four major exhibition halls, and the identity of those halls," explained the museum's executive director and founder, who is also known as Howard. He further emphasized, "Through those three halls, we’re going to get a chance to tell the deep extensive story of the African American inventor, and we’re going to do it like no one else has done."
The museum plans to feature three main exhibition halls named after prominent Black inventors: Granville T. Wood Hall of Telecommunications and Technology, the Elijah J. McCoy Hall of Transportation and Agriculture Technology, and the Dr. Patricia Bath Hall of Medicinal Science and Health.
Howard also mentioned the inclusion of 36 permanent exhibitions and a rotating temporary space, allowing for an expansive range of exhibits.
The museum's budget is estimated at $27 million, with $18 million already secured, including a $13 million pledge from an anonymous donor.
Howard, who also teaches design at the University of Texas at Austin, is actively engaged in fundraising efforts for the museum.
Currently, the museum is in the preliminary planning phase, with a final decision on its location in Newark or Morristown pending.