This collection consists of a cookbook entitled Operations Vittles.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a cookbook entitled Operation Vittles that was compiled by the American Women in Blockaded Berlin and published by Deutscher Verlag in January 1949. It measures approximately 8.25 by 6.5 inches with 118 pages including front and back covers. The book includes recipes with each cook's signature, hand-drawn illustrations, images of cargo plane, and drawings created by German schoolchildren. The cover features a drawing of a zoomorphic aircraft stylized as birds dropping food and supplies to Allied troops depicted as a group of openmouthed people in a bird's nest.
Arrangement:
One item.
Biographical / Historical:
At the end of World War II when the Soviet forces blockaded West Berlin roads, the United States and its allies executed "Operation Vittles," also known as the Berlin Airlift. Cargo planes delivered 2.3 million tons of food and supplies to West Berlin. Compiled by the "American Women in Blockaded Berlin," the Foreign Service Officers and their wives created this cookbook that includes recipes that utilized the limited variety of food at their disposal through this period.
This cookbook was property of Colonel John C. Winget who served in the United States Army Air Corps at the Wright-Patterson Base in Dayton, Ohio during World War II. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Civil Engineering and was employed by Armco Steel in Middletown, Ohio. Because of his education and employment, he was called back to duty at the established Air Materiel Command now part of the United State Air Force. Colonel Winget acquired this cookbook during the Berlin Airlift of 1949. He went on to service during the Korean War and was honored in a 1952 ceremony in London, England. His name is also engraved on the Wall of Honor outside the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
Provenance:
Ann La Porta, Gift, 2024, NASM.2024.0024.
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
This collection consists of 8 cubic feet of archival material documenting the life of Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen from 1950s to the 2010s. She had a successful career as a flight instructor, Beech Aircraft sales demonstration pilot, Beech Aircraft dealership owner, flight school chief pilot, commercial pilot, Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) Safety Counselor, aviation insurance agent/broker, advisor to the FAA, president of the Ninety-Nines, Inc. (1988-1990), and published aviation author. Jessen also participated in the Women in Space Program, evaluating women's potential as possible astronauts at the Lovelace Medical Center in 1961.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of approximately 8 cubic feet of archival material documenting the aviation career of Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen, including her involvement with the Ninety-Nines, her career with Beechcraft Aviation, and her writings on aviation; there is also a small amount of material related to her week-long testing with the Women in Space Program. The following types of materials are included: correspondence, photographs, pilot logs, scrapbooks, photo albums, programs, brochures, maps, magazine articles, manuals, handbooks, VHS tapes, and audiotapes.
Arrangement:
When the National Air and Space Museums Archives received the Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen Collection, it was arranged alphabetically by folder name. All original folder titles have been retained. PII has been manually redacted. Any additional contextual information that was added by the processing archivist appears in brackets.
Biographical / Historical:
Gene Nora (pronounced Janora) Stumbough Jessen was born on January 10, 1937, in Springfield, Illinois. While growing up, Jessen became interested in aviation after learning about the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) who served their country during World War II. She began flying while in her junior year of high school in the Civil Air Patrol and earned her private pilot license in 1956. She then attended the University of Oklahoma (OU), where she was a member of their flight team and entered her first National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) competition. While taking classes in 1959, Jessen became the first woman to work as a flight instructor for the school, which allowed her to also pay for college. During her time at OU, she earned seven collegiate-level flying trophies and remained on staff for six years after completing her English degree.
In 1961 Jessen quit her job as a flight instructor when she was selected as one of the women to participate in the Women in Space Program (1960-1962), also known as the Mercury 13 or Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs), at the Lovelace Medical Center in New Mexico. She was twenty-four years old. Dr. William Randall "Randy" Lovelace, who designed and carried out the rigorous testing for the thirty-two male Project Mercury candidates, and US Air Force Brigadier General Donald Flickinger, were curious to see how women would fare against their all-male peers. Unable to interest the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the undertaking, they conducted the experiment in secret independently. For Phase 1, this group of women underwent the same rigorous physical testing regimen used for NASA's Mercury astronauts. All participants passed. Armed with these results, Lovelace and Flickinger lobbied both Congress and the White House to consider including women in the Astronaut Corps, neither of which were keen on the idea; On a draft response letter, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson wrote "Let's stop this now!" Before the other parts of the test could begin, the Lovelace Program was cancelled.
Jessen moved to Wichita, Kansas, and accepted a job at Beech Aircraft in 1962. There, Jessen piloted planes for demonstration purposes for the company. On July 20, 1962, she embarked on a 90-day, 40,000 mile cross-country flight with fellow pilots Joyce Case and Mike Gordon. They were known as "The Three Musketeers", named after the Beech Musketeers the trio flew in formation across the United States. She and Case were the only female pilots flying for any aircraft manufacturer at that time. Soon, Jessen became rated to fly the entire line of Beech aircraft. In her spare time, she volunteered with the Wichita Wing Scouts from 1963-1967.
In Kansas, she also met and married Leland Robert "Bob" Jessen (1925-2020), a B-29 pilot during World War II, on June 12, 1964, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 1967, they moved to Boise, Idaho, where they established their own Beech dealership and, later, an aviation insurance business and Boise Air Service, a full-service, fixed base operation on the Boise Airport.
Jessen was also an avid writer. She was the aviation columnist for The Northwest Flyer, and The Idaho Statesman. Jessen also wrote several books on the history of women in aviation, including Sky Girls, a chronicle of the 1929 Powder Puff Derby.
Additionally, Jessen was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve on the Federal Aviation Agency's (FAA) Women in Aviation Advisory Board for five years. Between 1988 and 1990, Jessen was President of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of licensed women pilots. She was also a Wing Scout Leader, treasurer of the Idaho Pilot's Association, an Accident Prevention Counselor for the FAA, and the Boise Airport Commissioner. She was recently inducted into the International Women in Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. Jessen holds over 4,000 hours of flying experience and earned ratings as a commercial pilot, single and multi-engine land, single-engine sea, instrument rating and a Gold Seal flight instructor.
HONORS:
Honorary PhD, University of Wisconsin
Idaho Aviation Hall of Fame
Pathfinder Award Wall of Fame, Seattle Museum of Flight
Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award
Ninety-Nines Amelia Earhart Award
Achievement Award, International Northwest Aviation Council
Evanston Township High School Distinguished Alumni Award
Adler Planetarium Women in Space Service Award
Mercury 13 NASA Award, International Human Space Flight Day
Women with Wings Award, International Air and Space Museum
Next Generation Indie Book Award, 2010
YMCA Pioneers of the Future Award
FAA Women's Advisory Committee on Aviation
Boise Airport Commissioner
Provenance:
Gene Nora Jessen, Gift, 2023, NASM.2023.0052
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
This collection consists of the transcripts for the Glennen-Webb-Seamans Project (GWS), which examines various aspects of NASA management practices during the Apollo program. This project constitutes one of several oral history projects conducted within the Department of Space History, NASM. The principal investigator for the GWS was Martin Collins and the interview set contains 193 hours of interviews with 22 individuals. The central thread of this collection was the problem of configuring new political relations among the space sciences and sponsors. The following individuals were interviewed: J. Leland Atwood; Delmer Bradshaw; James Burnett; Paul Demitriades; Edward Doll; Peter Downey; Brian Duff; James Elms; James Fletcher; Robert Gilruth; T. Keith Glennan; Donald Jacobs; Ruben Mettler; Mark Miller; George Mueller; Samuel Phillips; Simon Ramo; Robert Seamans; Willis Shapley; Abe Silverstein; David Soergel; Harrison Storms; James Webb; Thorton Wilson; and Herbert York.
Scope and Contents:
The Glennan-Webb-Seamans Project Interviews consist of 193 hours of interviews with 26 individuals. The audio cassette tapes of these interviews have yet to be remastered and, due to their fragility, are unavailable to researchers. Transcripts are available to researchers, though there are restrictions placed on a number of them. A NASM staff member will advise the patron which transcripts are available for copying or viewing and how to order copies of transcripts and/or CDs.
Arrangement:
The Glennan-Webb-Seamans (GWS) Project Interviews are arranged alphabetically by interviewee. Boxes
1-11 (Series 1) contain the interviews on audio cassette tapes. These tapes have yet to be remastered and, due to their fragility, are not available to researchers.
Boxes 12-16 (Series 2) contain the transcripts for these cassette tapes. Most of these transcripts are available to
researchers, though restrictions are placed on a small number of them. Transcripts with user restrictions are
highlighted in bold type.
Biographical / Historical:
This collection contains the interviews of the Glennan-Webb-Seamans Project (GWS). These interviews
analyze a variety of facets revolving around NASA management and its handling of contractors during the
Apollo program. The individuals listed as part of this collection's name refer to the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration's (NASA) first two administrators and the agency's deputy administrator during
much of the 1960s. The principal (though, by no means the only) interviewer for this project was Martin
Collins and the interview set consists of 193 hours of interviews with 26 individuals. These interview
subjects represent some of the most influential decision-makers at NASA, the aerospace industry and
academia. The following were interviewed for this project: J. Leland Atwood; Delmer Bradshaw; James
Burnett; Paul Demitriades; Edward Doll; Peter Downey; Brian Duff; James Elms; James Fletcher; Robert
Gilruth; T. Keith Glennan; Donald Jacobs; Ruben Mettler; Mark Miller; John Moore; George Mueller;
Samuel Phillips; Simon Ramo; Robert Seamans; Willis Shapley; Abe Silverstein; David Soergel; Harrison
Storms; James Webb; Thornton Wilson and Herbert York. Among the myriad of topics discussed in these
interviews is the Apollo 1 [204] fire that killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee on
January 27, 1967, during a test at the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. The GWS
Project constitutes one of a number of oral history efforts endeavors conducted by the National Air and
Space Museum's (NASM) Department of Space History.
General note:
This collection consists of the interview transcripts, not the tapes.
Provenance:
Department of Space History, Transfer, 1999, 1999-0036, Varies
Restrictions:
Various restrictions apply.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, Please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Search this
Extent:
0.58 Cubic feet (One letter document case and one flat box.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Press releases
Scrapbooks
Date:
1960s, 1992, 2009
Summary:
This collection consists of three binders containing science news releases and a scrapbook containing photographs of Anne Thompson Bray and other the staff at the the Space News Roundup .
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of three binders containing science news releases: "The Fledging Science Writer Vol 1" October 1965 through March 1966, containing astronaut by-liners and non-space topics; "The Fledging Science Writer Vol. 2," April 1966 through September 1966, containing spouse and family astronaut families topics; and [Vol. 3], containing flight technical topics. These folders include both the releases by World Book Encyclopedia Science Services (including ones written by Anne Thompson Bray) as well as the accompanying black and white photographs, some from NASA and some taken by World Book staff photographers. The collection also includes a scrapbook containing photographs of Anne Thompson Bray and other the staff at the Space News Roundup .
Arrangement:
No arrangement.
Biographical / Historical:
Anne Thompson Bray (1934–2009) graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Journalism. Bray then went to work for the Fayetteville Observer before joining the NASA's Public Affairs staff first as a staff writer and then as the editor of the Space News Roundup , the official newspaper of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (now Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center). From April 1962 until July of 1963 Bray covered the Mercury Space Program from Houston, Texas. After the Mercury Space Program was completed, she left the civil service and worked for Cornet Magazine and Ford Aerospace, the Aerospace and Defense Division of Ford Motor Company. Bray also worked with World Book Encyclopedia Science Services.
Provenance:
Jessica Moyd Smith, Gift, 2020, NASM.2021.0004
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
This collection consists of 17 cubic feet of papers relating to the life and career of astronaut Pamela A. Melroy.
Scope and Contents:
The Pamela A. Melroy Papers (acc. no. 2018-0034) reflect Melroy's extensive experience as a pilot, space explorer, Space Shuttle Columbia accident investigator and leader within various governmental/military roles. Her great contributions as an air force officer, astronaut and Space Shuttle commander are quite evident in this collection.
This collection encompasses Melroy's years spent as an officer with the United States Air Force (USAF), test pilot, Gulf War veteran, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut and one of the first female Space Shuttle commanders. The material contained in the collection ranges from the 1970s into the 2010s. It is a mixture of the following materials: correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports and briefings, technical manuals (mainly NASA/Space Shuttle-related), notebooks, photographs, presentations and speeches, books, booklets and guidebooks, brochures, pamphlets, journals, magazines, articles, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous materials. Additionally, there are newspapers, photograph albums and scrapbooks.
The processing archivist did discern some original order to these materials. This collection was already in a rough chronological order. The processing archivist did rehouse these materials utilizing archival-friendly file folders and legal-size document cases.
This collection is arranged into three series. The first series is composed of personal materials that include correspondence, photographs, postcards, business cards and transcripts. Each type of archival material is organized chronologically and then alphabetically. The second series consists of professional materials and is by far and away the largest segment of the Pamela A. Melroy Papers. This series is arranged as follows: Melroy's correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, manuals (mainly Space Shuttle program-related), notes and notebooks, presentations and speeches, books, guidebooks and booklets, brochures, pamphlets and catalogs, newsletters, magazines and journals, articles, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous materials. All the above material is also arranged chronologically and then alphabetically. The third series is composed of oversize materials. This material consists of newspapers (mainly focused on the Space Shuttle Columbia accident of 2003), as well as Melroy's three Space Shuttle flights, (STS-92, STS-112 and STS-120), photograph albums and scrapbooks.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into three series. The first series is composed of personal materials that include correspondence, photographs, postcards, business cards and transcripts. Each type of archival material is organized chronologically and then alphabetically. The second series consists of professional materials and is by far and away the largest segment of the Pamela A. Melroy Papers. This series is arranged as follows: Melroy's correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, manuals (mainly Space Shuttle program-related), notes and notebooks, presentations and speeches, books, guidebooks and booklets, brochures, pamphlets and catalogs, newsletters, magazines and journals, articles, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous materials. All the above material is also arranged chronologically and then alphabetically. The third series is composed of oversize materials. This material consists of newspapers (mainly focused on the Space Shuttle Columbia accident of 2003), as well as Melroy's three Space Shuttle flights, (STS-92, STS-112 and STS-120), photograph albums and scrapbooks.
Biographical / Historical:
Pamela Ann Melroy was born on September 17, 1961, in Palo Alto, California. As a member of a military family, she spent her childhood living in many towns but considers Rochester, New York her hometown. Melroy graduated from Bishop Kearney High School in Rochester in 1979. Four years later, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Astronomy from Wellesley College and subsequently, a Master of Science degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984.
Melroy was commissioned through the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program while still attending graduate school. Upon completion of her Master's degree program at MIT, she attended undergraduate pilot training at Reese Air Force Base in Texas. After graduating from this program in 1985, Melroy was sent to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. While stationed there from 1985 to 1991, she flew the Boeing KC-10 aircraft as a co-pilot, aircraft commander and instructor pilot. Also, she flew combat missions in Iraq during 1990-91 (Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm). In time, she also graduated from the USAF's exclusive test-pilot school. All told during her 24-year career with the USAF, Melroy logged more than 6,000 hours of flight time in more than 50 different types of aircraft. She reached the rank of Colonel upon her retirement from the service in 2007.
Melroy started her career as an astronaut in late 1994 when she was selected as an astronaut candidate (ASCAN) by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was initially assigned to various astronaut support roles such as tasks involving Space Shuttle launch and landings. She also performed Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) duties in Mission Control. In 2003, Melroy served on the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia accident reconstruction team as the lead for the crew compartment module and operated as deputy project manager for the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Team.
Melroy was one of only two women to be in command of a Space Shuttle flight. She was the pilot of two Shuttle missions, STS-92 in 2000 and STS-112 in 2002. She served as mission commander on STS-120 in 2007. All three of her spaceflights involved assembling components on orbit for the International Space Station (ISS). Melroy logged a total of 924 hours in space.
Upon her more than 20 years of service to the USAF and NASA, Melroy assumed leadership roles with several public and private sector entities. This included organizations such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Lockheed Martin and Australia's Nova Systems, Ltd. She also worked as an advisor to the Australian Space Agency and as an independent consultant to the National Space Council's Users Advisory Group. In 2021, Melroy was selected as NASA's deputy administrator. In her current role, she assists the administrator in making final agency policies and decisions. Also, she acts for the NASA administrator in his absence by performing all necessary functions to govern agency operations.
Provenance:
Pam Melroy, Gift, 2018, NASM.2018.0034
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
This collection consists of the oral history transcripts and related research documentation for the Space Telescope History Project (STHP), which examined the space sciences, predominantly astronomy, viewed through the lens of a particular undertaking, the Hubble Space Telescope, 1970s-1980s.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of the oral history transcripts and related research documentation for the Space Telescope History Project (STHP), which examined the space sciences, predominantly astronomy, viewed through the lens of a particular undertaking, the Hubble Space Telescope, 1970s-1980s. The principal investigator for the STHP was Robert W. Smith, and the interview set contains 235 hours of interviews with 80 individuals. The central thread of this collection was the problem of configuring new political relations among the space sciences and sponsors. The following were interviewed: Bob Adams (with Robert Trevino and Kitty Havens); M. Aucremanne; John Bahcall; Neta Bahcall; William Baum; Michael Belton; March Bensimon; Robert Bless; Greg Boeshaar; Albert Boggess; John Brandt; Robert Brown; Bert Bulkin; Margaret Burbidge; J. J. Caldwell; Frank Carr; Clark Chapman; John Clark; Art Code; Frank Costa; E. G. Danielson; Arthur Davidsen; Mike Disney; John Downey; Rodger Doxsey; Frank Edmondson; James Elliot; Garvin Emanuel; William Fastie; Riccardo Giacconi; Alan Goldberg; Edward Groth; Arun Guha; Don Hall; Richard Harms; Richard Henry; Noel Hinners; Donald Hunten; William Keathley; Warren Keller; Sam Keller; Ivan King; A.L. Lane; Barry Lasker; Robin Laurence; David Leckrone; Malcolm Longair; John Lowrance; Duccio Macchetto; Bruce McCandless; Kent Meserve; Jesse Mitchell; Jim Moore; Mas Nein; Don Noah; Memphis Norman; T. Bland Norris; James Odom; Jean Olivier; Charles Pellerin; Arthur Reetz; Jack Rehnberg; Evan Richards; Nancy Roman; James Rose; Jeffrey Rosendhal; Jane Russell; Ethan Schreier; Daniel Schroeder; Thomas Sherrill; F. Pete Simmons; Stanley Sobieski; Fred Speer; Lyman Spitzer; Peter Stockman; Ernst Stuhlinger; John Teem; Domenick Tenerelli; William Tifft; Hedrick van de Hulst; Edward Weiler; James Welch; James Westphal; Richard White; and Ray Zedekar. The collection also contains the following documentation gathered from a variety of sources: photographs, slides, NASA publications and reports, contractor reports and studies, press releases, and finding aids produced by the Space History Department, NASM.
Arrangement:
The Space Telescope History History Project interviews are arranged alphabetically by interviewee. Boxes 1-14 contain interviews on audio cassette tapes. Boxes 15-20 contain the transcripts for these cassette tapes. Most of these transcripts are available to researchers though, restrictions are placed on a small number of them. A NASM staff member will advise the patron which transcripts are available for copying and/or viewing and how to order copies of transcripts. Transcripts with user restrictions are highlighted in bold type.
Biographical / Historical:
This collection contains the interviews for the Space Telescope History Project. These interviews examine the early planning and development of what would eventually be known as the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The period covered is from the 1970s into the 1980s. This project constitutes one of several oral history projects carried out within the National Air and Space Museum's (NASM) Department of Space History. This interview set consists of over 235 hours of interviews with 94 individuals. Please note that there are a few instances where audio cassette tapes of the interview subjects exist but without written transcripts while there are a few cases of existing transcripts of the interviews without any audio cassette tapes. Those interviewed include astronomers, scientists, engineers, as well as administrators, all of whom were involved in the space telescope project. The following were interviewed for this project: Bob Adams, Ken Ando, Marcel Aucremanne, John N. Bahcall, Neta Bahcall, William Baum, Michael J.S. Belton, Marc Bensimon, Livingston Biddle, Robert C. Bless, Greg Boeshaar, Albert Boggess, III, John Brandt, Robert A. Brown, Bert Bulkin, Margaret E. Burbridge, J.J. Caldwell, Frank Carr, Clark R. Chapman, John Clark, Art Code, Frank V. Costa, Allan Cree, E.G. Danielson, Arthur Davidsen, Mike Disney, James A. Downey, III, Roger Doxsey, Frank K. Edmondson, James L. Elliot, Garvin Emmanuel, William G. Fastie, George Field, Don Fordyce, Laurence W. Fredrick, Riccardo Giaconi, Alan Goldberg, Edward Groth, Arun K. Guha, Don Hall, Richard Harms, Kitty Havens, Richard Henry, Noel Hinners, Donald Hunten, William W. Keathley, Warren J. Keller, Sam Keller, Ivan King, A.L. Lane, Barry Lasker, Robin J. Laurance, David Leckone, Malcolm Longair, John L. Lowrance, Duccio Macchetto, Bruce McCandless, Kent Meserve, Jesse L. Mitchell, Jim Moore, Max Nein, Don Noah, Memphis Norman, T. Bland Norris, James B. Odom, Jean R. Olivier, Charles Pellerin, Arthur J. Reetz, Jack Rehnberg, Evan Richards, Nancy Roman, James Rose, Jeffrey D. Rosendahl, Jane Russell, Ethan Schreier, Daniel J. Schroeder, Thomas J. Sherrill, Pete F. Simmons, Stanley Sobieski, Fred A. Speer, Lyman Spitzer, Peter Stockman, Ernst Stuhlinger, John Teem, Domenick Tenerelli, William G. Tifft, Rodger Thompson, Robert Trevino, Hendrick C. van de Hulst, Edward Weiler, James C. Welch, James A. Westphal, Richard L. White and Ray Zedekar.
General note:
Additional material: This collection consists only of the interview transcripts, not the tapes. The tapes are housed in the National Air and Space Museum Department of Space History.
Provenance:
Department of Space History, NASM, Transfer, 1999, 1999-0035, Varies.
Restrictions:
Some restrictions apply; see permission forms in the collection accession file.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
The Sally K. Ride Papers consists of over 23 cubic feet of papers, photographs, certificates, and film, created or collected by Sally Ride and chronicling her career from the 1970s through the 2010s. The papers document Ride's lifetime of achievements and include material relating to her astronaut training and duties; her contributions to space policy; her work as a physicist; and her work as an educator, including Sally Ride Science and related STEM projects.
Scope and Contents:
The Sally Ride Papers reflect Ride's careers as a student, astronaut, physicist, professor, author, and CEO
of Sally Ride Science. This collection consists of material gathered by Sally Ride over the course of her life. This material is particularly rich in training materials from her astronaut days, but also provides significant insight into her career in academia and her interest and support of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education.
The bulk of this collection consists of materials related to Ride's professional work. This includes correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, reports and papers, notes, speeches, photographs, brochures, pamphlets, programs, newsletters, newspaper and magazine articles, and miscellaneous materials. Materials of a personal nature were retained by her family and therefore do not figure in this collection.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized chronologically into the following 12 series:
Series 1: Schooling
Series 2: NASA Career
Subseries 2.1: Training and Flights
Subseries 2.1.1: T-38 Training
Subseries 2.1.2: Space Shuttle Flight Training, General
Subseries 2.1.3: STS-7 Challenger Flight Training
Subseries 2.1.4: STS-41G Space Shuttle Challenger Flight Training
Subseries 2.1.5: Miscellaneous Space Shuttle Flight Training
Subseries 2.2: NASA Commissions and Reports
Subseries 2.2.1: Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (Rogers Commission Report) 1986
Subseries 2.2.2: NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space: A Report to the Administrator [Ride Report] 1987
Subseries 2.2.3: Columbia Accident Investigation Board / NASA's Implementation Plan for Space Shuttle Return to Flight and Beyond Report 2003
Subseries 2.2.4: Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee (Augustine Committee)
Subseries 2.3: White House Commissions and Reports
Subseries 2.3.1: President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
Subseries 2.3.2: Briefing for the Vice President of the United States, 1986
Subseries 2.3.3: Briefing for the Clinton/Gore Transition, 1992
Series 3: Space.com
Series 4: Academia
Subseries 4.1: Physics Research Papers by Ride
Subseries 4.2: Ride's Physics Research Proposals and Projects
Subseries 4.3: Physics Research Files
Subseries 4.4: Physics Classes Taught by Ride
Subseries 4.5: Non-Physics Classes Taught by Ride
Subseries 4.6: Physics Conferences and Seminars
Subseries 4.7: Miscellaneous Department of Physics Materials
Subseries 4.8: California Space Institute
Series 5: Sally Ride STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] Education Projects
Subseries 6.2: STEM Advocacy, Committees and Conferences
Series 7: Awards and Publicity
Subseries 7.1: Awards
Subseries 7.2: Correspondence/Invitations
Subseries 7.3: Boards
Subseries 7.4: Publicity Files
Series 8: Research Files
Subseries 8.1: Space:
Subseries 8.1.1: Space Articles, Reports, and NASA Publications
Subseries 8.1.2: Space Files – Commission, Workshops, and Special Reports
Subseries 8.2: Education
Series 9: Miscellaneous
Series 10: First Day Covers/Autographs
Series 11: Oversized material
Series 12: Films, Audio Tapes, and Media
Biographical / Historical:
Dr. Sally K. Ride became a national icon of achievement in science and space on June 18, 1983, when she became the first American woman to fly in space. Born in 1951 in suburban Encino, California, she took up tennis as a teenager and within a few years was ranked eighteenth nationally. In 1968, she enrolled at Swarthmore College as a physics major, but she dropped out after three semesters to train full-time at tennis. In 1970, Ride gave up tennis and entered Stanford University, where she took a double major in physics and English literature. She went on to complete a Masters and Ph.D. in physics from Stanford. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with the theoretical behavior of free electrons in a magnetic field.
While completing her Ph.D. in physics, she saw an announcement that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was looking for young scientists to serve as mission specialists and she immediately applied. She passed NASA's preliminary process and became one of 208 finalists. Ride was flown to Johnson Space Center outside Houston for physical fitness tests, psychiatric evaluation, and personal interviews. Three months later, she was an astronaut and one of six women selected for the class of 1978.
While learning to use a new space shuttle remote manipulative arm for a future mission, Ride acted as backup orbit Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for STS-2 and prime orbit CAPCOM for STS-3. She was named a mission specialist on the seventh flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983. As a mission specialist in the first five-member Shuttle crew, she operated a variety of orbiter systems and experiment payloads; she participated in the launch of two commercial communications satellites and also operated the remote manipulator system arm to maneuver, release, and retrieve a free-flying satellite. Ride also flew on a second mission, STS-41G in 1984, again on the Challenger. She spent a total of more than 343 hours in space.
Ride's career and legacy extended well beyond her missions in space. Ride had completed eight months of training for her third flight (STS-61-M, a TDRS deployment mission) when the space shuttle Challenger disaster occurred, and she was named to the Rogers Commission (the presidential commission investigating the accident) and headed its subcommittee on operations. Following the investigation, Ride was assigned to NASA headquarters where she led a strategic planning effort for NASA that yielded the 1987 report NASA Leadership and America's Future in Space: A Report to the Administrator (also known as the Ride Report), and she served as the first chief of the new NASA Office of Exploration. In 1993, she was named to the Columbia Accident Board, appointed to investigate the causes and to recommend remedies after that tragic loss.
In 1987, Ride left NASA to become a full-time educator. She first worked at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Arms Control and in 1989 she became a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Director of the California Space Institute. From the mid-1990s until her death, Ride led two public-outreach programs for NASA — the ISS EarthKAM and GRAIL MoonKAM projects, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UCSD. The programs allowed middle school students to request images of the Earth.
Ride continued her endeavors to improve science education and encourage young people to study science through her independent initiatives as an author or co-author of seven books on space aimed at children, and as a co-founder of Sally Ride Science, a company founded in 2001 that creates entertaining science programs and publications for upper elementary and middle school students, with a particular focus on science education for girls.
Ride died on July 23, 2012, at the age of 61, seventeen months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Provenance:
Gift of Tam O'Shaughnessy, received March 2014.
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Images of early interior design concepts of the Skylab main interior.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 11 color slides, 23 color prints, 49 digital scans, and two slide presentations of drawings all relating to early interior design concepts of the Skylab main interior. Across all medium, majority of images are duplications; all unique imagery can be found in "Skylab slide scans" within this finding aid. There is also one brochure, Skylab, produced by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation.
Arrangement:
Physical material arranged by media.
Biographical / Historical:
Skylab, the United States' first manned space station, was launched in 1973 as part of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's space program. It was made from the third stage of a Saturn V launch vehicle and served as an orbiting laboratory for scientific research over its operational life. Contributing to solar observations, biomedical studies, and Earth observations, it paved the way for future space stations and enhanced our understanding of long-duration space travel.
Before concluding in 1974, Skylab hosted three manned missions with three astronauts at a time. Within its limited space, Skylab's interior design focused on functionality incorporating multi-purpose elements to maximize efficiency. The station featured sleeping quarters, a dining area, and a scientific laboratory, ingeniously utilizing walls and floors for storage and workspaces. Its design innovations set precedents for future space habitats and influenced subsequent spacecraft designs.
Provenance:
Donald A. Gerds, Gift, 2013, NASM.2014.0001
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
This collection consists a memo and correspondence relating to the Apollo 8 broadcast as well as notes relating to various astronaut post-flight tours.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of the following: a memo to Hew Ryan, Deputy Director at the United States Information Agency (USIA), explaining how Simon Bourgin came to be the cocreator of the idea that the Apollo 8 crew read from the book of Genesis from the dark side of the moon; two letters Bourgin wrote Frank Frederick Borman, II on what he might say during that broadcast; notes on the Apollo 11 crew's world tour after their flight; and notes made from the East Asia tour of Borman and Walter Marty "Wally" Schirra, Jr. after the Gemini missions.
Arrangement:
No arrangment
Biographical / Historical:
Simon Bourgin was a Science Policy Officer at the United States Information Agency (USIA) during the late 1960s and early 1970s. During that time, Bourgin was the liaison with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and in this capacity he was in charge of NASA's information overseas. Bourgin was also the political escort for the astronauts on the foreign tours they made upon returning from space.
Provenance:
Simon Bourgin, Gift, 1995, NASM.1995.0025
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
This is a NASA recording on a reel-to-reel audio tape, made during the Apollo 8 mission, December 1968. This collection also consists of a CD that was made by NASM when the tape was delivered to Space History for Johnson Space Center (JSC).
Biographical / Historical:
The Apollo program began as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ten-year plan from 1959, which planned for lunar exploration some time in the 1970s. Following President Kennedy's speech of 25 May 1961, which called for a lunar landing by the end of 1969, NASA accelerated its development scheme accordingly. Apollo 8 (21 Dec - 27 Dec 1968) was the second manned flight of the program, the first manned flight of the Saturn V booster, and the first manned mission to orbit the moon. The main mission objectives were to "demonstrate crew-vehicle-support facilities performance during a manned Saturn V mission with [Command Service Module]" and to "demonstrate performance of nominal and selected backup lunar orbit rendezvous mission activities." The three-man crew, Frank Borman (commander), James A. Lovell (command module pilot), and William A. Anders (lunar module pilot) accomplished all these objectives and returned safely to Earth.
Provenance:
Department of Space History, National Air and Space Museum, Transfer, 2011
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
This collection reproduces a section of the first side (Side A) of National Air and Space Museum Archival Videodisc 6, a LaserDisc CAV format 12-inch (30 cm) optical disc published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1989, as individual videodisc frame captures. These digital images were created in 2003 by converting the NTSC video format output from an original copy of the videodisc to JPEG format still picture image files. NASM Archival Videodisc 6 reproduced National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) photography of American lunar missions from 1964 to 1972, including Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, and Apollo missions. This small collection consists of a historical series assembled by the NASM Archives to provide background information on lunar exploration missions by the United States and the Soviet Union.
Scope and Contents:
This section of the Videodisc Imagery Collection, NASM.XXXX.1000, includes ONLY those videodisc frames which correspond to NASM Archives holdings, namely VD-6A29244 through VD-6A31425. This section is a historical series assembled by the NASM Archives in 1989 to provide background information on lunar exploration missions by the United States and the Soviet Union, drawing on photographs then held in the Space History Series of the NASM Technical Reference Files, with additional photography obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters Public Affairs office and added to the collection. Museum staff added pages of text to create chronologies of American and Soviet lunar missions, Apollo missions, and biographies of the Apollo astronauts. Topics covered by the photography include launch vehicles (rockets), spacecraft, operations, personnel, and equipment such as the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicles and the Apollo Mobile Quarantine Facility. NASA mission photography used to create all other sections of NASM Archival Videodisc 6 was returned to NASA at the completion of videodisc production and is not available from NASM Archives.
The "videodisc frame capture" images reproduced in this section are small 100 ppi RGB JPEG image files, 624 x 480 pixels each, created in February 2003 by NASM Archives as still video frame captures of the NTSC video format output from an original copy of NASM Archival Videodisc 6. Each videodisc frame capture displays a black-edged white number in the upper left quadrant; the first two digits (00) are the videodisc chapter (not used on NASM videodiscs), the second set of five digits are the videodisc frame number. These numbers are an artifact produced by the videodisc player and do not appear on the original archival materials.
Arrangement:
The videodisc information is presented as it was originally published in 1989, in videodisc frame number order. A title page frame begins each videodisc folder. The image filenames consist of a prefix identifying the file as a videodisc frame capture (VD) followed by the videodisc number and side (6A) and the videodisc frame number (29244 through 31425).
The original printed paper finding aid provided with the published videodiscs was a listing of subject heading frame ranges (Files) presented in directory format. To make the collection easier to navigate in an online enviroment, this digital finding aid adds additional heirarchical levels (Series and Sub-Series) to provide intermediate folder groupings. Images in the Lunar Exploration series are grouped by country and mission, with missions arranged chronologically. Images in the Apollo Astronaut series are arranged alphabetically by name (last name first) with a section of group photographs appearing at the end of the series.
Biographical / Historical:
In 1982, faced with the twin challenges of providing rapid access to subject-oriented photography while still attempting to preserve the original prints, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) initiated the NASM Archival Videodisc Program. This optical disc storage technology (LaserDisc) was first marketed to the public in the late 1970s as a means for marketing and distributing motion pictures, but the 12-inch constant angular velocity (CAV) format analogue videodiscs (similar in construction to later digital video discs or DVDs) could also be used to hold still pictures (approximately 50,000 still picture frames per side, or 100,000 images for a double-sided disc). Each frame was numbered, making it easy to access a specific image and "freeze" it for display on a television or video monitor.
NASM Archival Videodisc 6 reproduced National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) photography of American lunar missions beginning with Ranger 7 in 1964 and ending with the flight of Apollo 17 in 1972, and including Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, and Apollo missions. Apollo imagery included 70 mm (color and black-and-white photographs covering astronaut activity on the moon, lunar features, and Earth imagery) and metric mapping photographs. This videodisc was unusual in that it featured a large number of text images interspersed with the photography in historical sections presenting chronologies of American and Soviet lunar missions, Apollo missions, and biographies of the Apollo astronauts.
All photographic prints or color transparencies were sequentially numbered with printed title pages inserted into the sequence (black text on white paper) before the materials were photographed onto 35mm film for transfer to videodisc. Each videodisc was accompanied by a printed finding aid consisting of folder-level subject lists noting the image frame number or numbers associated with each subject.
Related Materials:
Original archival materials photographed to produce this section of NASM Archival Videodisc 6, Side A, can be found in the related physical collection Videodisc Imagery Collection, Videodisc 6A Contents, NASM.XXXX.1000.1610.
Provenance:
Generated 1989, NASM.XXXX.1000.4610
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Worden, Alfred Merrill "Al", 1932-2020 Search this
Extent:
.37 Cubic feet ((2 boxes))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Signatures (names)
Photographs
Date:
bulk 1960s
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists .37 cubic feet of the following items: a binder (divided into three folders) of Apollo program astronaut photographs (some autographed) as well as philately, a patch, and documentation relating to Apollo 15; material relating to the Apollo 8 launch including photographs, invitation, and viewing stand pass; a volvelle, "Apollo 12 Mission Analyzer;" "Lunar Surface Exploration Photomap Package for Apollo 16" report; "Aircraft Evolution and Airline Growth" report; a brochure entitled "Thiokol...pacing the solid propulsion industry;" and photographs of astronauts and aircraft. The photographs include: an 11 by 13 inch mounted photograph of James Irwin on the Moon, signed by Dave Scott, Al Worden and James Irwin; a photograph of a Lockheed NF-104 Starfighter, signed by Buzz Aldrin; an autographed test pilot group photograph; and photographs of aircraft, including North American XB-70 (RX-70) Valkyrie/Lockheed F-104 Starfighter incident photographs, refueling of a Lockheed SR-71 (Blackbird), and images of the General Dynamics F-111, Sikorsky (S-61A) CH-3A Sea King, and McDonnell F94C (F-110A) Phantom II.
Biographical / Historical:
James Edwards was a nephew of astronaut Alfred Merrill "Al" Worden, and the son of test pilot Major Al Edwards. While growing up, Edwards collected photographs, many of which were personally signed by astronauts and test pilots.
Provenance:
Susan Edwards, Gift, 2016
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Hereward Lester Cooke (1916-1975), a curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, was extremely interested in the moon landing as well as in stamp collecting. He acquired over five hundred stamps relating to the 1969 lunar landing from countries including: Afghanistan, Algeria, Belgium, Bhutan, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, China, Congo, Czechoslovakia, Dahomey, Dubai, Fujeira, Gabon, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Italy, Korea, Liberia, Magyar, Malagasy, Maldives, Mali, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Ras Al Khaima, Rwanda, El Salvador, Samoa, Seychelles, Sharjah and Dependencies, Togolaise, Trinidad and Tobago, Umm Al Qiwain, The United States, Upper Volta, Uruguay and Venezuela. He donated his collection to the National Air and Space Museum in the early 1970s.
Biographical / Historical:
The first steps by a human on another planetary body were taken by Neil Armstrong of the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. In order to commemorate this monumental event, many countries created stamps relating to the moon landing. While most of the stamps feature Neil Armstrong descending onto the surface of the moon and other various space scenes, other stamps feature the crew members dressed in civilian clothes along with their families. Along with documenting history, the stamps generated revenue for the issuing countries.
Provenance:
Elizabeth Miles Cooke, Gift, 2002
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Black and white digital images of Neil Armstrong at the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) hosted by USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad in May 1970.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains black and white digital images of Neil Armstrong at a press conference as part of the 13th annual session of the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) hosted by the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad [now the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg] in May 1970. Images are mostly candid shots and depict Armstrong surround by reporters and leaving in a car. Some Soviet astronauts including Georgy Beregovoy and Konstantin Feoktistov also attended the event.
Also included are four digital images of the photographer, Aleksey Ostrovskiy. The black and white images were taken in 1970 when Ostrovskiy first captured the Armstrong photography. The comtemporary, color images are dated 2007 when he offered this donation.
Arrangement:
Original order.
Biographical / Historical:
In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon after successfully commanding Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission. The following year in early May the USSR Academy of Sciences [now the Russian Academy of Sciences] invited Armstrong to travel to the Soviet Union and speak at the 13th annual conference of the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). Spending five days in Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], he spoke at press conferences, narrated Apollo mission footage, and gave a talk about "Lunar Surface Exploration."
Photographs in this collection were taken by a teenaged Aleksey Ostrovskiy. At this time, his mother worked within the USSR Academy of Sciences and arranged his attendance at a press conference in late May 1970.
Provenance:
Aleksey Ostrovskiy, Gift, 2007, NASM.2007.0041
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
8.1 Gigabytes (118 digital image files (RGB TIFF format))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes
Date:
July 5 and July 16, 1969
Summary:
This collection consists of 118 digital image files created in 2009 by photographer Travis Burgess by scanning original 35 mm black and white photographic negatives which he had made in July 1969. The first series of 112 images feature Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edward E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. participating in a preflight press conference on July 5, 1969, at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas. The second series consists of 6 images taken at the launch of Apollo 11 on its Saturn V rocket from Launch Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on the morning of July 16, 1969.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 118 digital image files created in 2009 by photographer Travis Burgess by scanning original 35 mm black and white photographic negatives which he had made in July 1969. The first series of 112 images (NASM 9A13870 through 9A13981) feature astronauts Neil A. Armstrong (Commander), Michael Collins (Command Module Pilot), and Edward E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. (Lunar Module Pilot) participating in a preflight press conference on July 5, 1969, in the Building 1 auditorium of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas; measures designed to reduce the possibility of exposing the crewmen to infectious disease in the preflight period (face masks and a box-like enclosure) can be seen in this series. During the conference the astronauts answer questions from reporters, show off a copy of the stainless steel Apollo 11 plaque to be left behind on the Moon in commemoration of the historic landing, and pose with the Moon plaque and a mission insignia plaque. The second series consists of six images (NASM 9A13982 through 9A13987) taken at the launch of Apollo 11 on its Saturn V rocket from Launch Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on the morning of July 16, 1969, at 9:32 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (local time).
Arrangement:
Images are presented in their original (chronological) order, and have been divided into two series by event. Burgess' original image filenames have been changed to NASM Archives image reference numbers NASM-9A13870 through NASM-9A13987, retaining their original order.
Biographical / Historical:
The Apollo program began as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) long-term plan for lunar exploration. Following President Kennedy's speech of May 25, 1961, which called for a lunar landing by the end of 1969, NASA accelerated its development scheme accordingly. Apollo 11 (July 16-24, 1969) was the fourth manned flight of the program and the first manned landing on the moon. The mission objectives were to "perform a manned lunar landing and return; conduct scientific experiments; [and] collect soil and rock samples for return to Earth." The three-man crew, Neil A. Armstrong (Commander), Michael Collins (Command Module Pilot), and Edward E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. (Lunar Module Pilot) accomplished all mission objectives. Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon in the Sea of Tranquility at 3:17pm on July 20, 1969, and, six hours later, Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon at 9:55pm. The two men spent two hours outside the lunar module and gathered 21kg of lunar samples before lifting off at 12:54am on July 21, 1969, to rendezvous with Collins.
Provenance:
Travis Burgess, gift, 2009, NASM.2009.0061
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
This collection consists of approximately 100 historic letters. Correspondents include: Neil Armstrong, Alexander Graham Bell, Richard Byrd, George Clemenceau, Jacqueline Cochran, Glenn H. Curtiss, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, Jimmy Doolittle, Amelia Earhart, Thomas Edison, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Augustus Herring, Harry Houdini, Otto Lilienthal, Henry Cabot Lodge, Grover Loening, Charles Manley, Hiram Maxim, James Means, William Mitchell, Eddie Rickenbacker, Alex P. de Seversky, I. Sikorsky, and Ferdinard von Zeppelin.
Provenance:
Gift, Various donors, Various
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. took the first human-captured, color still photographs of the Earth during his three-orbit mission on February 20, 1962, with an Ansco Autoset model camera. This collection consists of a packet of four 35mm color slides produced from color photographs taken by Glenn during his space flight, which Ansco included with each purchase of its Ansco Autoset 35mm camera as an advertising promotion.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a packet of four Anscochrome 35 mm color slides (transparencies) produced from color photographs taken by astronaut John Glenn during his space flight, which Ansco included with each purchase of its Ansco Autoset 35 mm camera as an advertising promotion. The collection also includes the original slide envelope with a description of each photograph.
1. View of the Atlas Mountains in Sahara Desert. Coast of Morocco and Atlantic Ocean in foreground.
2. One of the three sunsets Col. Glenn saw.
3. Clouds over the Pacific Ocean.
4. East coast of Florida, Atlantic Ocean in foreground, Gulf of Mexico in center background.
Arrangement:
Slides are presented in original order. Digital images show fronts and backs of slides in reflected light, a view of the slides in transmitted light, and front and back of the original envelope containing the slides.
Biographical / Historical:
Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. took the first human-captured, color still photographs of the Earth during his three-orbit mission on February 20, 1962, with an Ansco Autoset camera. The fully automatic Ansco Autoset model was manufactured for Ansco by the Japanese camera company Minolta, being essentially the same design as the Minolta Hi-Matic. For ease of use by Glenn, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) technicians attached a pistol grip handle and trigger to this commercial 35 mm camera, as well as a large viewfinder on top as Glenn, wearing a spacesuit helmet, could not get his eye close to a built-in viewfinder.
The Ansco brand name dates from the merger in 1901 of two American photography firms, E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. and Scovill Manufacturing. In 1907, the company now known as the Anthony & Scovill Co., producers of photographic films, papers, and cameras, officially changed their name to Ansco. In 1928, Ansco (based in Binghamton, New York) merged with the German photographic company Agfa to form the Agfa-Ansco Corporation which soon came under the control of the German chemical conglomerate IG Farben; the following year Agfa-Ansco's holding company name was changed to American IG Chemical Corporation, although their products retained the Agfa-Ansco brand name. In 1939, American IG was merged with General Aniline to form General Aniline & Film (GAF) with Agfa-Ansco becoming a subsidiary of GAF. Agfa-Ansco's German connections became an issue with the entrance of the United States into World War II, and in 1941 the US government seized GAF's American interests (including Agfa-Ansco) as enemy property. In 1944, "Agfa" was dropped from the name to become the Ansco Division of GAF. The US government continued to run the company for the next twenty years, with GAF not becoming a public firm until 1965. By the late 1970s the Ansco company had ceased the manufacture of film and was effectively dead; in 1978 GAF sold the rights to the Ansco trademark name to a Hong Kong firm which produced the last Ansco brand cameras in the early 1990s.
Related Materials:
The modified Ansco Autoset camera used by astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. on the Mercury Friendship 7 flight is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection: Camera, 35mm, Glenn, Friendship 7, A19670198000.
Provenance:
Bill Jonscher, Gift, 2019, NASM.2019.0047
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Search this
Extent:
15.23 Cubic feet (34 boxes.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Correspondence
Reports
Date:
1970s - 2010s
Summary:
This collection consists of approximately 15.23 cubic feet of papers, photographs, certificates, and video/film, created or collected by Kathryn Sullivan, spanning her lifetime of achievement.
Scope and Contents:
Scope and Content Note:
The Kathryn D. Sullivan Papers (acc. no. 2019-0007) reflect Dr. Sullivan's broad, restless curiosity regarding oceanography, geology, engineering, astronomy, space exploration and education advocacy. Sullivan's great contributions as a scientist, educator, astronaut and explorer are quite evident in this collection.
For the most part, this collection encompasses Dr. Sullivan's years spent as a NASA astronaut, with the U.S. Naval Reserve (USNR), as well as her post-NASA career as a federal government administrator, educator, scientist and explorer; roughly, from the 1970s through the 2010s. There is some material however, that dates back prior to this time span. This collection is a mixture of the following materials: correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports technical manuals, flight logs, photographs, speeches, news releases, papers, books, brochures, pamphlets, journals, magazines, articles and day planners. Additionally, there are some materials stored in oversized containers that include newspapers or sections of newspapers, Dr. Sullivan's Ph.D. dissertation from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, certificates and awards, a photograph album, as well as matted photographs pertaining to her Space Shuttle flights (STS-41G, STS-31 and STS-45) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
Upon receiving the Kathryn D. Sullivan Papers, the processing archivist did discern some order to this collection. Some materials, such as photographs, reports and speeches, tended to be grouped together. Other materials were threaded throughout in a more random fashion. Furthermore, most of the archival items had been already placed in some sort of files or folders. The processing archivist did rehouse these materials utilizing archival-friendly file folders and legal-size document cases.
This collection is arranged into three series. The first series is composed of personal materials that include correspondence, photographs, postcards, business cards and transcripts. Each type of archival material is organized chronologically and then alphabetically. The second series consists of professional materials and is by far and away the largest segment of the Kathryn D. Sullivan Papers. This series is arranged as follows: Dr. Sullivan's correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, manuals (mainly Space Shuttle program-related), flight logs, photographs, speeches, news releases, policy directives and educational course materials, papers, Congressional hearings and testimony, books, brochures, catalogs and pamphlets, magazines and journals, certificates, articles, and miscellaneous materials (such as agendas, programs, day planners and photographic slides). All the above material is arranged chronologically and then alphabetically. The third series is composed of oversize materials. This material consists of newspapers or sections of newspapers (mainly focused on the Space Shuttle Challenger accident of 1986), Dr. Sullivan's Ph.D. dissertation, a photograph album, awards and certificates, as well as matted photographs, largely pertaining to her three Space Shuttle flights and the Hubble Space telescope (HST).
Please note: the initials "KDS" refer to Kathryn D. Sullivan.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into three series. The first series is composed of personal materials that include correspondence, photographs, postcards, business cards and transcripts. Each type of archival material is organized chronologically and then alphabetically. The second series consists of professional materials and is by far and away the largest segment of the Kathryn D. Sullivan Papers. This series is arranged as follows: Dr. Sullivan's correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, manuals (mainly Space Shuttle program-related), flight logs, photographs, speeches, news releases, policy directives and educational course materials, papers, Congressional hearings and testimony, books, brochures, catalogs and pamphlets, magazines and journals, certificates, articles, and miscellaneous materials (such as agendas, programs, day planners and photographic slides). All the above material is arranged chronologically and then alphabetically. The third series is composed of oversize materials. This material consists of newspapers or sections of newspapers (mainly focused on the Space Shuttle Challenger accident of 1986), Dr. Sullivan's Ph.D. dissertation, a photograph album, awards and certificates, as well as matted photographs, largely pertaining to her three Space Shuttle flights and the Hubble Space telescope (HST).
Biographical / Historical:
Kathryn D. Sullivan was born on October 3, 1951, in Paterson, New Jersey. Several years later, the Sullivan family relocated to California where her father proceeded to work in the aerospace field. After graduating from high school in 1969, Sullivan received a Bachelor of Science degree in earth sciences from the University of California at Santa Cruz. In 1978, she earned her Ph.D. in geology from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. During her time at Dalhousie, Sullivan participated in several oceanographic expeditions that studied the floors of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
In 1977, Sullivan applied for a position as astronaut candidate for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Her application was successful and she was accepted as part of the first group of six women astronauts hired by the space agency. Training and evaluation commenced in 1978 and was completed the following year. Dr. Sullivan was now an official astronaut, qualified for selection on space flight crews. She would make her first flight aboard NASA's new fleet of Space Shuttles five years later. This flight, designated STS-41G (Space Transportation System), lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on October 5, 1984. While circling the Earth from the orbiter Challenger, Dr. Sullivan performed the first spacewalk or EVA (extra-vehicular activity) by an American woman. During her second shuttle flight, designated STS-31, she flew aboard the orbiter Discovery. Lifting off from KSC on April 24, 1990, she actively participated in deploying the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) into Earth orbit. Her third and final space flight occurred aboard Discovery once more, from March 24 to April 2, 1992. Dr. Sullivan served as Payload Commander on this mission, designated STS-45 - the first flight of Spacelab dedicated to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program. In 1993, she retired from NASA but, not before logging a total of 532 hours in space.
Hand in hand with her NASA career, Dr. Sullivan also served her country with the U.S. Naval Reserve (USNR). In 1988, she became a direct commissioned officer with the rank of lieutenant commander. Two years later, Dr. Sullivan was given command of a specialized unit of oceanographers and meteorologists that was based at Naval Air Station Dallas. This facility provided support to the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command Center on the island of Guam. By the time of her retirement from the USNR in 2006, she had attained the rank of captain.
Though retired from NASA, Dr. Sullivan has since maintained a very active life. Aside from her work as an USNR officer that continued into the first years of the 21st century, she also served as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ohio's Center of Science and Industry (COSI). Under her leadership, COSI enhanced its impact on science teaching in the classroom, as well as its national reputation as an innovator of hands-on, inquiry-based science learning resources. Additionally, from 2006-2011, she acted as Director for Ohio State University's Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy while continuing with COSI as a volunteer science advisor.
Two decades after leaving NASA, Dr. Sullivan reentered public service within the federal government. In 2011, the Obama administration nominated, and the U.S. Senate confirmed, her as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction and Deputy Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Moreover, starting in early 2013, she served as acting NOAA Administrator. The following year, she was confirmed by the Senate as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and simultaneously, as NOAA Administrator. She remained in these positions until early 2017.
Upon her retirement from government service, Dr. Sullivan was selected for the 2017 Charles A. Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History Fellowship, at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum (NASM). During her time with the museum as a Fellow, she focused her research energies on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Based on this research, Dr. Sullivan wrote her book, Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention, which was released in 2019.
Dr. Sullivan's life as an explorer, researcher, scientist and public servant continued into the early 2020s. In 2020, she ventured aboard a specially equipped submarine to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first woman to reach the deepest known point of all of Earth's oceans, as well as the first person to travel to both the Challenger Deep and aboard the shuttle Challenger (and later, Discovery) into outer space. Also, late that year, Dr. Sullivan was named a volunteer member of President-Elect Biden's presidential transition Agency Review team to help facilitate transition efforts connected to the Commerce Department. In 2021, President Biden appointed her to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
During her decades in public life, Dr. Sullivan has had many honors bestowed upon her and earned numerous awards – too numerous to list all of them here. The following is merely a sample: NASA Space Flight Medal (1984 and 1990), the National Air and Space Museum Trophy, Smithsonian Institution (1985), NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1988 and 1991), NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership ((1992), Ohio Veteran's Hall of Fame (2001), Ohio Women's Hall of Fame (2002), inductee into the Astronaut Hall of Fame (2004) and the Aviation Week & Space Technology Aerospace Legend Award (2005). Additionally, she has received honorary degrees from multiple colleges, including ones from Brown University and Willamette University.
Provenance:
Kathryn D. Sullivan, Gift, 2018, NASM.2019.0007
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Gerard Kitchen O'Neill (1927-1992) was an experimental physicist, educator, inventor, entrepreneur, writer and novelist.
Scope and Contents:
Materials in this collection include notes, business papers, patents, calendar planners, reports, a thesis, correspondence, book drafts, screenplay drafts, university publications, magazines, magazine articles, newspaper articles, glass & 35mm images, photographs, a rolodex.
The researcher should note that the collection also contains VHS tapes and audio cassettes. These items are not included in the container list but a NASM Archives staff person can assist you regarding access.
Arrangement:
Organized into 5 series:
Series 1: Professional Papers
Series 2: Publications & Reports
Series 3: Personal Papers
Series 4: Images
Series 5: Odd & Oversize
Biographical / Historical:
Gerard Kitchen O'Neill (1927-1992) was an experimental physicist, educator, inventor, entrepreneur, writer and novelist.
Gerard K. O'Neill joined the Navy at age 17, served as a radar technician from 1944 to 1946, graduated from Swarthmore College in 1950 with high honors in Physics, and received his Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 1954. He went to Princeton University in that year as an Assistant Professor, becoming a Full Professor of Physics in 1965. In the 1976-77 academic year he received the honor of serving as the Jerome Clarke Hunsaker Professor of Aerospace at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He retired from Princeton in 1985 as professor emeritus.
Dr. O'Neill's main research area was high-energy particle physics and he initiated and led large-scale projects in accelerator construction. In 1956 he invented the storage-ring technique for colliding particle beams, a method which is now the basis for nearly every new high-energy particle accelerator. In 1976 he built his first Mass Driver prototype.
Dr. O'Neill was a pioneer in the field of space colonization; his studies on the humanization of space began in 1969 as a result of his undergraduate teaching at Princeton, and one of his four books, The High Frontier, detailed his vision of humanity's movement into Earth-like habitats constructed in space. The High Frontier won the Phi Beta Kappa Award as the best science book of 1977. He also authored 2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future, The Technology Edge: Opportunities for America in World Competition and co-authored a graduate textbook, Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics.
In 1977 following the success of The High Frontier, Dr. O'Neill founded the non-profit Space Studies Institute. SSI's research included work on mass drivers and the Lunar Polar Probe (renamed Lunar Prospector and flown by NASA.)
In 1967 Dr. O'Neill was a finalist, though ultimately not selected, for NASA's Astronaut Group 6, a group of scientist-astronauts to be given assignments in the Apollo Program. He returned to NASA throughout 1975-1977 to led studies on space habitats and space manufacturing; he testified twice before Congress during that time. In 1985, he was appointed by President Reagan to the National Commission on Space.
In 1983 Dr. O'Neill founded the Geostar Corporation, a satellite based positioning and communication system, based on a patent issued to him.
In 1986, O'Neill founded O'Neill Communications, Inc. which developed LAWN, a local area network device using radio waves and still in use today.
At the time of his death, Dr. O'Neill was working on a form of high-speed ground-based transportation he called "Magnetic Flight" with another company he founded, VSE International.
Dr. O'Neill was an instrument-rated pilot with some 2,500 hours of time in powered aircraft and held the Triple Diamond Badge of the Federation of the Aeronautique Internationale for sail plane flights. He was active in ultralight aircraft aviation and a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association. On most of his travels in connection with research and lectures, he piloted his own small plane.
Dr. O'Neill died from leukemia in 1992; the Clementine Mission of 1994 was dedicated to him.
Provenance:
Tasha O'Neill, Gift, 2013
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Webb, James E. (James Edwin), 1906-1992 Search this
Extent:
0.05 Cubic feet (1 folder)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Newspaper clippings
Press releases
Papers, technical
Photographs
Menus
Date:
bulk 1951-2004
Summary:
This collection consists of material relating to Captain Jean Kathleen Trainum McKay (1924-2016) and her work as the dietitian for the Mercury Project including news clippings, press releases, writings by McKay, photographs, and a detailed pre-flight feeding plan.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of approximately 0.05 cubic feet of material relating to Jean McKay and her work as the dietitian for the Mercury Project including news clippings, press releases, writings by McKay, photographs, and a detailed pre-flight feeding plan. The feeding plan consists of nutritional information, menus, and recipes, and is signed on the front by astronauts Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., John Herschel Glenn, Jr., Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr., Walter Marty "Wally" Schirra, Jr., and Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton. The writings by McKay consist of papers on nutrition and feeding astronauts as well as the notes for a talk to a docent meeting at the San Diego Air and Space Museum recounting McKay's experiences with the Mercury Project. Press releases are from the office of Congressman Phillip Hart Weaver (R-Nebraska) and one from the Whirlpool Corporation on their Space Kitchen which includes two 8 by 10 inch black and white photographs. Also included is also a 4 by 6 inch color photograph of McKay with Shepard and Schirra taken in August 1995.
Biographical / Historical:
Captain Jean Kathleen Trainum McKay (1924-2016) was serving as the staff dietitian in the Office of the Air Force Surgeon General when she was selected to serve as the dietitian for the Mercury Project and was sent to Cape Canaveral in April 1961. Although research and development for the pre-flight dietary guidelines had been done previously at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, McKay was responsible for planning specific menus from the basic guide, purchasing the food and supervising preparation and serving, and conducting nutritional analysis and reporting to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Prior to this assignment, McKay was a member of a unified team of women serving in various branches of the military put together to work with the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) to recruit more women to serve in the Armed Forces.
Provenance:
Laurel Barile, Gift, 2017, NASM.2017.0028.
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
