Smithsonian Celebrates Steve Jobs with Exhibition

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs filed more than 300 technology patents in his 56 years and more than a few of them were culture- and world-changing.

The Smithsonian, which late last year rebranded itself with the Jobs-like tagline “Seriously Amazing,” is preparing to spread out the patents and trademarks of Jobs, who died last year due to complications from pancreatic cancer, for all to see starting May 11 and running through mid-July at the organization’s Ripley Center, the Associated Press reports.

The exhibition will include “a 1985 Apple Macintosh computer, mouse and keyboard; a 2005 NeXT computer; a 2010 Apple iPod; and copies of 312 documents,” the AP notes. According to a press release from the Smithsonian, the exhibit — a partnership with the USPTO — will be a series of 30 4-by-8-foot panels that all look like iPhones and each holds the front pages of patents issued to Jobs.

Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough notes that this will mark the “first in a series of exhibits planned with the patent office,” the AP reports.

The Smithsonian and Jobs hooked up back in 1995 so he could be part of the Institution’s oral-history project. Too bad the Volkswagen microbus that Jobs sold back in the mid-70s to help launch Apple from his parents’ garage won’t be part of the show.

Check out images from the show here.