From 2001: Art by the numbers | USAEMALL.com

Critics sniffed, but paint by numbers was a popular fad in the 1950s. To mark the hobby’s 50th anniversary, the works of amateur, number-aided artists were honored with an exhibition – the most comprehensive ever – at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Bill Geist meets the inventor of paint-by-numbers, Dan Robbins, and curator William “Larry” Bird, as well as aficionado Trey Speegle, who shows off his personal collection of hundreds of paint-by-numbers canvases. Originally broadcast on April 27, 2001.