The Rand History Project Interviews constitute one of several oral history projects conducted within the National Air and Space Musuem's Department of Space History. The principal investigator for this project was Martin Collins and the following individuals were interviewed: Bruno Augenstein, Robert Bacher (with Lee DuBridge), Edward Barlow, Robert Belzer, Paul Blasingame, Edward Bowles, Frank Collbohm, Merton Davies, Richard Frick, Lawrence Henderson, Charles Hitch, Amrom Katz, Scott King, Burt Klein, David Novick, Malcolm Palmatier, Ernst Plessett, Edward Quade, Arthur Raymond, Ben Rumph, Robert Salter, Bernard Schriever, Gustave Shubert, Robert Specht, Hans Speier, George Tanham, Crawford Thompson, and Albert Wohlstetter.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of the compact audio cassettes and transcripts for the Rand History Project interviews, which is a dual institutional study of the RAND Corporation and its military sponsor, the Air Force. This collection covers the period 1945 though the early 1960s and consists of 104 hours of interviews with 29 individuals. The RAND interviews were conceived as another angle of inquiry on the relations between expert knowledge and the military in the early Cold War. RAND drew together engineers, scientists, and mathematicians whose specialties were oriented toward military hardware design and the physical sciences and sociologists, political scientists, economists, psychologists, and other social science and humanities specialists. All were organized within a single institution to study the problem of warfare in the cold War, especially from the perspective of the Air Force.
Arrangement:
The RAND History Project Interviews are arranged alphabetically by interviewee. Series I (boxes 1-9) contains interviews on audio cassette tapes. Series II (boxes 10-12) contains the transcripts.
Biographical/Historical note:
This collection contains the interviews for the RAND History Project Interviews. These interviews explore the non-profit research firm's efforts to study the various problems of U.S. national security during the Cold War, in particular, from the perspective of the U.S. Air force (USAF). RAND brought together physical scientists, political scientists, sociologists, engineers and mathematicians and organized them within this single institution to pursue such research efforts. The RAND Project constitutes one of a number of oral history endeavors conducted by the National Air and Space Museum's (NASM) Department of Space History. The principal (though, by no means the only) interviewer for this project was Martin Collins, and the interview set consists of 104 hours of interviews with 38 individuals. The following people were interviewed for this project: Bruno Augenstein, Robert Bacher (with Lee DuBridge), Edward Barlow, Robert Belzer, Paul Blasingame, Edward Bowles, Charles Carey, Frank Collbohm, Merton Davies, Robert Davis, James Digby, Gene Fisher, Richard Frick, Olaf Helmer, Lawrence Henderson, Charles Hitch, Victor Jackson, Amrom Katz, Scott King, Burt Klein, Charles Lindblom, Hugh Miser, David Novick, Malcolm Palmatier, Ernst Plessett, Edward Quade, Arthur Raymond, Ben Rumph, Robert Salter, Bernard Schriever, Lloyd Shapley, Gustave Shubert, Robert Specht, Hans Speier, George Tanham, Crawford Thompson, and Albert Wohlstetter.
Related Materials:
Similar materials, specifically a series of videohistories on the same topic, are housed in the Smithsonian Institution Archives in the The Research and Development (RAND) Corporation Interviews, local collection number SIA 9536.
Provenance:
Department of Space History, NASM, Transfer, 1999, NASM.1999.0037, Varies.
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
Webb, James E. (James Edwin), 1906-1992 Search this
Extent:
0.39 Cubic feet ((1 box))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Date:
bulk 1933-1976
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of the correspondence, notes, and official documents between NASA Administrator James Webb and Arthur Raymond, NASA consultant, 1961-1976. The correspondence covers a range of topics including policy evaluation, commentary, and recommendations relating to NASA's relationship with government, industry, universities and the military with specific references to the Apollo program, Dyna Soar project, and the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. There is also a folder containing correspondence and miscellaneous documents from Raymond's tenure as consultant to the RAND Corporation and a folder of correspondence between Raymond and James H. Kindelberger relating to the Douglas DC-1.
Biographical / Historical:
James E. Webb (1906 -1992) received an A.B. degree from the University of North Carolina in 1928. Webb joined the United States Marine Corps in 1930 and completed naval aviator training at the United States Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. In 1936, he was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia after completing evening law courses at George Washington University and began his government career as a secretary to Representative Edward W. Pou of North Carolina. From 1936 to 1943 Webb held several executive positions at Sperry Gyroscope, but returned to the Marine Corps during World War II, where he served as commander of an aviation wing. After the war Webb worked in the United States Treasury Department, was appointed Director of the Budget by President Truman, and in 1949 he was reassigned by presidential appointment to the State Department where he served as Undersecretary of State. Webb left the State Department in 1952, and worked in the private sector for such companies as Kerr-McGee Oil Industries of Oklahoma, and as director of McDonnell Aircraft and president of Educational Services Incorporated. In 1961 Webb returned to the government when he was appointed Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In almost eight years of service Webb led NASA as it expanded from an agency with 17,000 employees and a {dollar}900 million budget to an agency with 34,000 employees and a {dollar}5.2 billion budget. During Webb's administration NASA successfully carried out Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, Nimbus, Tiros, and a host of other scientific and engineering programs.
Arthur Raymond (1899-1999) was the Chief Engineer at Douglas and his team built the DC-3. After retiring from Douglas in 1960, Mr. Raymond was a special consultant to James E. Webb, NASA's administrator. Raymond was put in charge of supervising outside contractors on both the Gemini and Apollo space projects until 1969. In November 1991, Raymond received the National Air and Space Museum Trophy for lifetime achievement.
Provenance:
Martin Collins, Transfer, 2017
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
Space Station Freedom was a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) project from the 1980s that, although it was never brought to fruition as such, evolved into the International Space Station (ISS). This collection consists of a viewgraph presentation on Space Station Freedom prepared by Terence T. Finn to be given by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator James Montgomery Beggs to President Ronald Wilson Reagan and the Cabinet Council on December 1, 1983.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a viewgraph presentation on Space Station Freedom prepared by Terence T. Finn to be given by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) administrator James Montgomery Beggs to President Ronald Wilson Reagan and the Cabinet Council on December 1, 1983. The presentation includes information about the United States' space policy; other NASA programs such as the Space Shuttle; advantages of a space station program; and information on the Soviet Salyut space station. The collection also includes talking points (dated November 30, 1983) for the presentation and a NASA publication entitled, "The Space Station: A Description of the Configuration Established at the Systems Requirements Review (SRR)," dated June 1986. Scans of the individual pages of the presentation and a copy of the presentation put together as a PowerPoint file were provided by the donor and these are housed with the collection on a USB flash drive.
Biographical / Historical:
Space Station Freedom was a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) project that, although it was never brought to fruition as such, evolved into the International Space Station (ISS). NASA began developing Freedom in the early 1980s and the project was announced in then-President Ronald Wilson Reagan's 1984 State of the Union address. Many of the design components of Freedom were later incorporated into the ISS. Terence T. Finn was a member of NASA's Space Station Task Force.
Provenance:
Terence T. Finn, Gift, 2013, NASM.2013.0052.
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
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Station Freedom Viewgraph Presentation, Acc. NASM.2013.0052, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Future space programs 1975 : Hearings before the Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, first session, July 22, 23, 24, 29 and 30, 1975
Author:
United States Congress House Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications Search this
Subject:
United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration Search this
Where do you go after you've been to the moon? : a case study of NASA's pioneer effort at change / by Francis T. Hoban with William M. Lawbaugh and Edward J. Hoffman
