Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

Join us on March 21 for a special Stories of Science program celebrating the invention of the first paper match folder in 1892.

Opening April 10, 2026, this exhibition celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The March 21 event features the Philly-born invention of the first paper match folder.

This collection features materials related to the history and science of fireworks, gunpowder, and other explosives.

Pyro enthusiasts converge on Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for an annual event known as the Western Winter Blast.

Maxim was a chemist and inventor known for his work on weapons, particularly smokeless gunpowder.

An inconspicuous technology sparks revolution on the subcontinent.

People spontaneously combusting is the stuff of myth, but discoveries about the connections between combustion, blood, and breathing got Charles Dickens’s imagination burning.

How popular narratives of the atomic age obscure the bomb’s first victims.

Follow the birth, life, and demise of the Hercules Powder Company, which once dominated the explosives industry in the United States.

The founder of the prestigious Nobel Prizes made his fortune with a big bang by inventing dynamite, a stabilized form of nitroglycerin.

The world’s first plastic made Hollywood possible—and killed thousands of people along the way.