ABSTRACTThe Smithsonian Lemelson Center's Invention at Play exhibition project brought a fresh perspective to the study of invention by exploring the role of play in the creative processes of historic and contemporary inventors. This special journal issue provides a welcome opportunity to share the Lemelson Center's primary research, featuring interviews with inventors about their personal play histories, combined with secondary research regarding connections among play, child development, creativity, and invention, and show how we used this research to develop a museum exhibition providing visitors with opportunities to learn how play fosters creativity and invention, to understand how children's play parallels inventors' processes, and to experience their own playful and inventive abilities. The original exhibition closed in 2011, but its research and its spirit live on through Lemelson Center and National Museum of American History activities at the Smithsonian, and we hope will inform future play and ...