The Henry and Ludmilla Shapiro Collection; Partial gift and partial purchase through the Decorative Arts Association Acquisition and Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program Funds
Accession Number:
1989-41-12
Catalogue Status:
Research in Progress
Description:
Circular, with notched gilded border and in the center a scene showing a stylized airplane flown by a young man and woman, a red flying carpet, a couple dressed in medieval costume, a chained ogre, caged birds
Number of Images: 1; Color: Sepia; Size: 2.25w x 2.25h; Type of Image: Exhibit; Interior; Medium: Photographic print
Type:
Interior
Photographic print
Exhibit
Topic:
Museum visitors
Exhibit cases
Aeronautics
Winnie Mae (Airplane)
Airplanes
Exhibitions
Numismatics
Painting
Coins
Lockheed Model 5C Vega
Artifacts
Standard number:
SIA2011-0185 and 32307-9
Restrictions:
For permission to reproduce or publish, contact osiaref@si.edu or call 202-633-5870. To order reproductions, call 202-633-1933 or contact photos@si.edu
Category:
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Notes:
See Negative Numbers 32291-B and 91-3702 for other images of the plane
Summary:
Suspended from the ceiling in the Arts and Industries Building is the Winnie Mae, a special Lockheed Model 5C Vega flown by famed aviator Wiley Post. The plane completed two around-the-world record flights and a series of special high-altitude substratospheric research flights. Three men stand looking up at the plane. One is leaning on a exhibit table. Exhibit cases hold coins from the Numismatics Exhibit and paintings on the walls are from the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art. The image was taken by Ruel P. Tolman, Director of Smithsonian National Collection of Fine Arts, and is included in a scrapbook of photographs of Smithsonian staff, grounds and buildings, exhibitions, and Washington, D.C. scenes. (Section A)
Even the name seemed psychedelic. Jefferson Airplane was one of the first rock bands to fully capture the counterculture of the mid-1960s, quickly gaining national and then international fame. This 1966 poster featured a photograph of the band with its new lead vocalist, Grace Slick (born 1939). Jefferson Airplane’s irreverent lyrics—with references to sex, drugs, and radical politics—pulsating sound, and Slick’s soaring contralto and dramatic stage presence, launched the band into the national consciousness. The psychedelic posters commissioned by rock impresario Bill Graham for San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium suggest the dizzying, multisensory experience of many Fillmore events, which were often charged with high-decibel music, light shows, and mind-altering drugs. Although the wild lettering and colors that designer Wes Wilson used rendered the advertisement almost illegible, this innovative style successfully evoked the burgeoning hippie counterculture.
