An evening at Morven with NY Times bestselling author Jon Gertner and The Idea Factory

NY Times bestselling author Jon Gertner discusses his book The Idea Factory, one of the important inspirations for Morven's latest exhibition: Ma Bell: The Mother of Invention in New Jersey . Introductions by Morven's Executive Director Jill Barry and Assistant Curator and Registrar Jesse Gordon Simons
From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world.
From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it’s hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn’t been touched by Bell Labs.
Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century’s most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history.
At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.

About the Presenter:
Jon Gertner is a best-selling journalist and historian whose stories on science, technology, and nature have appeared in a host of national magazines. Since 2003 he has worked mainly as a feature writer for The New York Times Magazine. His first book, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, was a New York Times bestseller. A frequent lecturer on technology and science history, Gertner lives with his family in New Jersey.
This program is presented in collaboration with Morven's exhibition Ma Bell: The Mother of Invention in New Jersey
Funding for Ma Bell: The Mother of Invention in New Jersey has been provided in part by AT&T Services Inc., The Hess Foundation, Liza and Schuyler Morehouse, The Astle-Alpaugh Family Foundation, Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Lisa and Michael Ullmann, Fulton Bank, and Church & Dwight Co., Inc.