National Air and Space Museum

National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum is located in Washington, D.C.
Location in Washington, D.C.
Established July 1, 1976
Location Washington, D.C.
Visitor figures 6,012,229 (2007)
200+ million cumulative (2007)[1]
Director Gen. John R. Dailey
Curator Tom Crouch
Public transit access L'Enfant Plaza (Washington Metro) Maryland Avenue exit
Website http://www.nasm.si.edu

The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world.[2] It was established in 1946. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history, and science of aviation and spaceflight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics.[2] Almost all space and aircraft on display are originals or backups to the originals. It is the most popular of the Smithsonian museums and operates an annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, at Dulles International Airport. The museum currently conducts restoration of its collection at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland.

Contents

Architecture

Because of the museum's close proximity to the United States Capitol, the Smithsonian wanted a building that would be architecturally impressive but would not stand out too boldly against the Capitol building. St. Louis-based architect Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum accepted the challenge and designed the museum as four simple marble-encased cubes containing the smaller and more theatrical exhibits, connected by three spacious steel-and-glass atria which house the larger exhibits such as missiles, airplanes and spacecraft. The mass of the museum echoes the National Gallery of Art across the National Mall, and uses the same pink Tennessee marble as the National Gallery.[3] Built by Gilbane Building Company, the museum was completed in 1976. The west glass wall of the building is used for the installation of airplanes, functioning as a giant door.[4]

History

Wright Flyer hanging in the museum in 1982

Originally called the National Air Museum when it was formed on August 12, 1946 by an act of Congress,[5][6] some pieces in the National Air and Space Museum collection date back to the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia after which the Chinese Imperial Commission donated a group of kites to the Smithsonian. The Stringfellow steam engine intended for aircraft was accessioned into the collection in 1889, the first piece actively acquired by the Smithsonian now in the current NASM collection.

After the establishment of the museum, there was no one building that could hold all the items to be displayed. Some pieces were on display in the Arts and Industries Building, some were stored in a shed in the Smithsonian's South Yard that came to be known as the Air and Space Building, and the larger missiles and rockets were displayed outdoors in Rocket Row.

The combination of the large numbers of aircraft donated to the Smithsonian after World War II and the need for hangar and factory space for the Korean War drove the Smithsonian to look for its own facility to store and restore aircraft. The current Garber Facility was ceded to the Smithsonian by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1952 after the curator Paul E. Garber spotted the wooded area from the air. Bulldozers from Fort Belvoir and prefabricated buildings from the United States Navy kept the initial costs low.

The space race in the 1950s and 1960s led to the renaming of the museum to the National Air and Space Museum, and finally congressional passage of appropriations for the construction of the new exhibition hall, which opened July 1, 1976 at the height of the United States Bicentennial festivities. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opened in 2003, funded by a private donation.

The museum will receive several artifacts, including a former camera, that were removed from the Hubble Space Telescope and returned to Earth after Space Shuttle mission STS-125. The museum also holds the backup mirror for the Hubble which, unlike the one that was launched, was ground to the correct shape. There were once plans for it to receive the Hubble itself, but plans to return it to Earth were scrapped after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003; the mission was re-considered as too risky.

The Smithsonian has also been promised the International Cometary Explorer, which is currently in a solar orbit that occasionally brings it back to Earth, should NASA attempt to recover it.

Controversies

Controversy erupted in 1994 over a proposed commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan. The centerpiece of the exhibit was the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the A-bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Veterans’ groups, backed by some congressmen, argued strongly that the exhibit’s inclusion of Japanese accounts and photographs of victims insulted U.S. airmen.[7] Also disputed was the predicted number of fatal US casualties that would have resulted from an invasion of Japan, had that been necessary. In the end, the museum’s director, Martin O. Harwit, was forced to resign, and the exhibit was radically reduced to “the most diminished display in Smithsonian history." [8]

Directors

Carl W. Mitman was the first head of the museum, under the title of Assistant to the Secretary for the National Air Museum, heading the museum from 1946 until his retirement from the Smithsonian in 1952.[9]

The following have been, or acted as, director of the museum:

Gallery of exhibits

Ad Astra ("to the stars"), the sculpture at the entrance to the building

Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft

Apollo 11 Command Module

Soviet SS-20 and U.S. Pershing II rockets

SpaceShipOne

Bell X-1

The Spirit of St. Louis

Pioneer H

X-15

Apollo–Soyuz Test Project Display

The space suit worn by David Scott on Apollo 15

Intercontinental ballistic missiles

Apollo Lunar Module LM-2

Replica of lunar space suit

Original Star Trek production model of the USS Enterprise

Side view of a former Northwest Boeing 747-100B

Former Eastern Douglas DC-3

Lockheed U-2

In popular media

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/pressroom/presskits/museumkit/facts_mall.cfm
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/
  3. ↑ Scott, Pamela; Lee, Antoinette J. (1993). "The Mall". Buildings of the District of Columbia. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 91. ISBN 0-19-509389-5. 
  4. ↑ A Guide to Smithsonian Architecture. Smithsonian Institution. 2005 [2006]. pp. 15. 
  5. ↑ National Air and Space Museum - NASM Chronology, Smithsonian Institution
  6. ↑ History of the NASM
  7. ↑ Los Angeles Times, May 3rd, 1995, p. 21
  8. ↑ New York Times, Aug. 6th, 1995 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE4D61238F935A3575BC0A963958260
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Finding Aids to Official Records of the Smithsonian Institution, Record Unit 330: Series 1, National Air and Space Museum, Records, 1912-1971
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Finding Aids to Official Records of the Smithsonian Institution, Record Unit 338, National Air and Space Museum, Records, circa 1972-1989
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 National Air and Space Museum, Office of the Director - Agency History

External links

Smithsonian Museums
List of Smithsonian museums

Anacostia Community Museum · Archives of American Art · Arthur M. Sackler Gallery · Arts and Industries Building · Cooper-Hewitt · Freer Gallery of Art · Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden · National Air and Space Museum · National Museum of African American History and Culture (Future) · National Museum of African Art · National Museum of American History · National Museum of the American Indian · National Museum of Natural History · National Portrait Gallery · National Postal Museum · S. Dillon Ripley Center · Smithsonian American Art Museum · Smithsonian Institution Building · Smithsonian National Zoological Park (National Zoo)