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National Air and Space Museum Press Kit
Collections and Research
Aeronautics Division
The Aeronautics Division is responsible for the historical research and
collecting activities of the National Air and Space Museum related to
all aspects of flight in the atmosphere. The goal of the division is to
preserve, document, and interpret the history of aeronautical technology
within a broad and appropriate political, economic, military and social
context. As part of this responsibility, the division acquires, documents
and maintains a collection of historically significant artifacts for public
exhibition, study and reference. Staff members conduct historical research
leading toward scholarly and popular publications, exhibitions, lectures,
seminars and other forms of public presentation. Staff members also respond
to a broad range of requests from news media, documentary makers, researchers
and the public on matters related to the history of aeronautics.
The major aircraft collections are: Early Flight; Commercial Aviation
(includes piston-engine aircraft, turboprop aircraft, and jet aircraft);
Military Aviation (includes pre-1920, interwar period, World War II, Cold
War and experimental); General Aviation (includes private aircraft, business
aircraft, utility aircraft, gliders, homebuilt aircraft, ultralights and
hang gliders); Special Purpose Aircraft (includes research and experimental,
exploration, record-setting and racing aircraft); Vertical Flight (includes
helicopters, autogiros, and vertical takeoff and landing aircraft); and
Lighter-than-Air Flight (includes balloons and airships).
The extensive non-aircraft collections of the division include: Aero Propulsion
(engines, propellers and auxiliary equipment); Armament and Ordnance (guns,
cannons, bombs and bombsights), Art (includes space art); Awards and Memorabilia
(trophies, medals and ribbons, insignia, memorabilia); Flight Material
and Equipment (uniforms and personal equipment, including helmets, flight
suits, etc.); Instruments, Avionics and Flight Management Systems (flight
instruments, cockpit controls and related devices); Kites; Model Aircraft
and Engines; Photographic Equipment (aerial cameras); and Posters.
In addition, the Aeronautics Division, with the Space History Division,
edits the Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series. The
series seeks to publish substantive works that further our understanding
of the transformation aviation and spaceflight have brought about in our
lives-our conceptions of time and distance, our daily routines and popular
culture, and the conduct of exploration, business and war-in their social,
cultural, political and military contexts.
Space History Division
The Space History Division is the focal point for space-related historical
research, collecting, and exhibit work at the museum. Curators and staff
within the division research and publish; engage in public outreach through
exhibitions, lectures and other means; and collect and manage the care
of rocket and space artifacts in the museum's collection. The collection
includes rockets and missiles, human and robotic spacecraft, scientific
instruments, and popular culture artifacts. The division also considers
both the technical history of spaceflight as well as the broader political,
international, cultural, social, economic, institutional, and military
contexts of spaceflight in our work. The division embodies the museum's
mission to preserve, understand and communicate the history of rocketry
and space exploration, as part of the larger story of United States and
world history. Staff members also respond to a broad range of requests
from news media, documentary makers, researchers and the public on matters
related to the history of space exploration.
The museum possesses an unparalleled collection that preserves many facets
of rocketry and space exploration undertaken by the United States and,
to a lesser degree, other countries. The artifacts cover programs and
technology created for human spaceflight, rocketry and missiles, computers
and avionics, commercial satellites, military space, ground- and space-based
astronomy, space sciences, and foreign space programs.
The department's Oral History Project documents through interviews the
recollections of leading scientists, engineers, managers and political
figures involved in the nation's space program. Oral histories in the
collection deal with Space Astronomy, the Hubble Space Telescope and the
RAND Corporation.
Archives
The National Air and Space Museum Archives Division is responsible for
document, film and photograph collections relating to the history and
technology of aviation and space exploration. Archives materials are housed
in two locations. The ready reference files, major photo collection, film
and administration departments are located in Room 3100 at the museum
building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The second department
is located at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage
Facility in Suitland, Md. The archives' building at the Garber site houses
the main body of document collections, including more than two million
aircraft engineering drawings from the 1890s to the 1970s, either on microfilm
or in paper format, as well as numerous technical manuals, manuscript
collections and scrapbooks and other photo collections. Written inquiries
from the public are welcome. Researchers may visit the archives to conduct
their own research by appointment.
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies
Established in 1973, the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies utilizes
a collection of more than 300,000 photographs and images-many obtained
from Earth-orbiting satellites and manned and unmanned space missions-of
the Earth, Moon, and planets in research related to planetary and terrestrial
geology. Staff research subjects include planetary geology, geophysics
and geologic mapping of planetary surfaces; geomorphology and surface
dynamics in arid and semi-arid regions of the Earth; and comparative studies
of volcanic and tectonic landforms on the Earth and other terrestrial
planets. Results of these research activities are disseminated as books,
articles for the general public, scholarly papers in professional journals
and lectures to the public and professional community.
The Center is a NASA-supported Regional Planetary Image Facility under
the Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program of NASA's Solar System Exploration
Division and also has curatorial responsibility for two galleries in the
museum's Mall building-"Exploring the Planets" and "Looking at Earth."
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