History Rich Museum or Self-Marketing Apple Store? 

Steven Pearlstein, a columnist for the Washington Post and Edward Tenner writing in the Atlantic have differing opinions on how American Industry should be celebrated on the National Mall.

Immigration banter aside in his article, Mr. Pearlstein is promoting an informal group of passionate leaders of American Industry, who have petitioned Congress and will soon be soliciting endowments from America’s largest and most successful high tech industries for the creation of The National Museum of Arts and Industry.

However, Dr. Tenner believes that American Manufacturing should really be the focus of a National Museum, pointing out that American ingenuity goes back much further than Apple’s shiny iProducts, with some impressive achievements preserved in a hallowed place such as Smithsonian's National Museum of American History’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation .

Dr. Tenner suggests that a National Museum of American Manufacturing be created to celebrate such innovations as the pioneer axe, Kentucky rifle, watch industry, shoe machinery, and, of course, the assembly line among other exciting manufacturing inventions. As a melting pot of ethnicities as its core, American Manufacturing naturally reflects the achievements of America’s collective history.

You can find Mr. Pearlstein’s article here

And Dr. Tenner’s here

Image: Night shift in Wheaton Glass Works, Millville, N.J./Library of Congress.