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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

-0001

1954

  • Work on this object began.

2014

2025

  • You found it!

Sketch For Memo Pad With Adhesive Strip (USA)

This is a Sketch for memo pad with adhesive strip. It was made by Joseph B. Friedman. It is dated March 18, 1954. Its medium is ink on paper.

Joseph Friedman’s best-known invention is the flexible straw, but the range of his inventive activities encompassed writing implements, improvements to engines, and household objects. Friedman frequently sketched on loose scraps of paper—he was especially fond of envelopes—working out ideas and solving problems, as here, where he sketches out an idea for a memo pad with an adhesive strip—and idea that predates the Post-It ™.

It is credited Joseph B. Friedman Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, 2001.3031.

Our curators have highlighted 10 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

  • Sketch For Pencilite (USA)
  • pencil on paper.
  • Joseph B. Friedman Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American....
  • 14.2012.135

Its dimensions are

H x W (drawing): 15.5 x 10.5 cm (6 1/8 x 4 1/8 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Tools: Extending Our Reach.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/51682485/ |title=Sketch For Memo Pad With Adhesive Strip (USA) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=20 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>