1969:
Apollo Command Module Handbag
"Okay, I can see the shape of your vehicle now, Mike."
This unique handbag pays homage to the space vehicle that Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins called "my happy home for eight days." In July 1969, while his compatriots, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked on the lunar surface below, Collins orbited the Moon in the combined command module (CM) and service module (SM), together called the command/service module or CSM. After he returned to Earth, he received this purse shaped like a CSM. The unique memento celebrated the distinctive profile of the vehicle that brought America's first Moon-walkers safely back to Earth.
Inspired at least in part by the mod clothing movement that was in full swing by 1969, this streamlined fashion accessory reproduced the CSM's color and shape. The actual Apollo CSMs featured a thermal coating of silver Mylar that helped to protect them from the heat of the Sun. Photographs of the CSM taken from the lunar module (LM) show sunlight glinting off the reflective surface. On the purse, silver-colored leather with a "Morocco" grain imitated that appearance. Made in Canada by designer "Mr. Henry," the foot-long ladies handbag features gleaming silver handles and a silver clasp that completed the look.
It is perhaps not too surprising that Collins's "happy home" inspired such creativity. More than any of the previous American space vehicles, the CSM looked like the popular image of a spaceship: a classic, pointed, single-engine rocket ship. Unlike the sleek, streamlined, and aerodynamic vehicles foretold in science fiction, actual spaceships turned out to be somewhat awkward-looking. The first American astronauts flew into space in blunt-ended capsules designed by Max Faget to maximize stability during reentry. The LM, the first ship to land on another world, looked like a squat box of angular planes perched atop spindly legs. (In fact, Apollo 9's LM earned the affectionate call sign "Spider" because of its buglike appearance.) When joined to the tubular SM and its single-rocket engine, however, the conical CM became the pointed end of a classic rocket ship profile.
Although the trips made by the Apollo Program's CSMs remain the longest distances ever traveled by human beings, the CSM handbag's journey into the Smithsonian's collection was ultimately a very short one. In 1972, retired astronaut Michael Collins became the first director of the Museum and offered the bag for the National Collection. A staff member simply picked it up from his office and accessioned it.
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