United Nations. Committe on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Search this
Extent:
30.52 Cubic feet (28 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Papers
Newsclippings
Correspondence
Memorandums
Date:
bulk 1940s-2000s
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of twenty-eight cubic feet of the professional papers of Eilene M. Galloway, concentrating mostly on space law. The following types of material are represented: correspondence, memorandum, press releases, news clippings, policy papers by Galloway and others, conference materials, and congressional reports. There is a great deal of material from the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Air and Space, and from the various organizations she was active in, such as IAA, AIAA and IISL.
Biographical / Historical:
Eilene Galloway (1906-2009) was one of the world's leading experts in space law and policy. She was a founding member of the International Institution of Space Law, and she authored numerous papers, speeches and opinion pieces on space law. After Sputnik was launched in 1957, Senator Lyndon Johnson, Chairman of the Preparedness Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee asked Galloway, then national Defense Analyst at the Library of Congress, to serve as Staff Consultant for hearings on US preparedness in space. When the Senate organized the Special Committee on Space and Astronautics, she served by formulating questions for witnesses and analyzing testimony. In 1958, Johnson sent Galloway to represent the United States at a meeting of the International Court of Justice in The Hague where she gave a speech entitled "The Community of Law and Science." That same year she was the editor of the Space Law Senate Symposium. Galloway helped establish the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). Galloway was a founding member of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) and she was also a member of of the American Astronautical Society (AAS), the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). She was the recipient of many awards including the first woman elected Honorary Fellow of the AIAA, and she was the first recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace.
Provenance:
Jonathan Galloway, Gift, 2009
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 six feet of material documenting Porter's many scientific contributions. The following types of material are included: photographs, lecture notes, correspondence, trip notes, newspaper clippings, symposium programs, papers, and periodicals, circa 1930s-1980s.
Scope and Content:
The Richard Porter Collection reflects Porter's career as an electrical engineer, rocketry expert, and a corporate manager and consultant. Almost the entirety of this collection consists of materials related to his professional work. This includes correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, reports, notes, speeches, photographs, brochures, pamphlets, programs, magazines, newsletters, papers, articles, newspaper clippings, miscellaneous materials (directories, mailing lists, transcript, etc.), as well as a scrapbook. It is worth singling out a few of the aforementioned materials for their particular historical significance pertaining to the development of rocketry and space exploration. Some of the correspondence, memoranda and notes reveal the inner workings of Operation Paperclip: the U.S. plan to seek out, debrief, recruit and evacuate German rocket scientists from war-torn Germany to America. Additionally, other examples of correspondence and notes give candid appraisals of some key figures in the aerospace field, as well as to illustrate exchanges between Porter and such scientific luminaries as Carl Sagan, Wernher von Braun, Simon Ramo, Holger Toftoy, Fred Durant III, Edith Goddard and Clyde Tombaugh.
The Porter Collection is arranged both chronologically and alphabetically. Correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, notes, notebooks, speeches, photographs, brochures, pamphlets, programs, magazines, journals, articles, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous materials are organized by the former method. Reports are arranged alphabetically by organizational name while newsletters and papers are grouped alphabetically by title and then chronologically.
The reader should note that the Porter Collection was exposed to a fire in Porter's office sometime during the late 1970s. The fire, along with the subsequent dousing of water from the firefighters, destroyed much of this collection. All that remained are the materials described here. While the surviving materials generally suffered only minor damage (mainly to their original folders), scorch marks can be occasionally observed on some correspondence, speeches, reports, etc.. More serious problems exist with seven folders containing photographs. For conservation purposes, they have been separated from the rest of the photographs in this collection and are currently unavailable to researchers.
Arrangement:
The Porter Collection is arranged both chronologically and alphabetically. Correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, notes, notebooks, speeches, photographs, brochures, pamphlets, programs, magazines, journals, articles, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous materials are organized by the former method. Reports are arranged alphabetically by organizational name while newsletters and papers are grouped alphabetically by title.
Biographical/Historical note:
As an established authority on rockets, GE placed Porter in overall charge of the company's guided missiles department in 1953. By the mid-1950s, his great knowledge in this field also lead to a position as head of a panel of scientists tasked with developing a U.S. space program in time for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58. On February 1, 1958, Porter was given the honor of announcing to reporters that the U.S. had launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, the previous night. The booster employed for this endeavor, an Army Jupiter-C, was designed and built mainly by the German rocket scientists (including their leader, Wernher von Braun) Porter helped to bring to America thirteen years earlier. By this time, GE assigned him as a company-wide consultant. Besides serving as leader of the U.S. IGY effort, he also served on many other boards and panels such as the International Relations Committee of the Space Sciences Board, U.S. National Academy of Science, the U.S. Academy in the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and the U.S. delegation for the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. During his long career in engineering and aerospace development, Porter was also the recipient of numerous honors and awards. These included the Coffin Award, Goddard Award and the Scientific Achievement Award given by Yale University.
Aside from his career, Porter had a busy personal life. In 1946, he married Edith Wharton Kelly. The couple had two daughters and a son. Porter enjoyed horticulture -- especially growing orchids, as well as skiing and playing the clarinet. He died on October 6, 1996 at the age of 83.
General note:
Dr. Porter had a fire that destroyed most of his papers. These six boxes are all that remain.
Provenance:
Susan Porter Beffel and Thomas Andrew Porter, Gift, 1997, 1997-0037, NASM
