128 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1968 



Leonard Carmichael, present Secretary of the Smithsonian, succeeded 

 former Secretary Alexander Wetmore on the Advisory Board upon 

 the latter's retirement December 31, 1952. 



STEPHENSON BEQUEST 



The bequest of George H. Stephenson, of Philadelphia, provides 

 for a sculptured figure of Gen. William Mitchell, as a gift to the 

 National Air Museum. Arrangements for procurement of the 

 statue have been in charge of the Director of the Smithsonian's Na- 

 tional Collection of Fine Arts and officials of the National Gallery 

 of Art and the Fine Arts Commission. During the year a number 

 of prominent sculptors were considered for this undertaking. 



SPECIAL EVENTS AND DISPLAYS 



Throughout the year the National Air Museum participated in 

 many special events and exhibits and arranged several special dis- 

 plays: 



Three occasions commemorative of the beginning of the airmail 

 service — the forerunner of commercial aviation — are noteworthy. 

 On August 12, 1952, the ZUh anniversary of the date the Post Office 

 Department took over operation of the airmail. All American Air- 

 ways (now Allegheny Airlines) presented to the Air Museum a scale 

 model of the Stinson SR-10 airplane used by that airline for airmail 

 pickup service from 1939 to 1949. This took place at a Imicheon 

 given by that airline to several officials of the Post Office Department, 

 the Smithsonian Institution, the Air Museum, and about 50 persons 

 of prominence in aeronautics. Whereas August 12, 1918, was the 

 date when the Post Office began operations with its own pilots and 

 planes and assisting personnel, airmail service on a permanently 

 scheduled basis had been inaugurated on May 15, 1918, by the Signal 

 Corps Aviation Section as a military experiment. The anniversary 

 of that date in 1953 was observed by the Aero Club of Washington. 

 The head curator of the Air Museum, who had been present at the 

 original occasion, pointed out to members of the Club the location 

 from which the first mail planes took off ; he also composed the text 

 of a marker, which was turned over to the National Park and Plan- 

 ning Commission, to commemorate that event and mark the location. 

 On May 24, 1953, the Indiana State Society gave a luncheon at the 

 National Airport in honor of Robert Shank, who was one of the 

 original four pilots hired by the Post Office when that Department 

 took over the airmail service from the military. Three weeks earlier 

 Governor George N. Craig of Indiana, Representatives Charles A. 

 Halleck and Charles B. Brownson, and E. C. Gaertner, a member of 

 the Society, had visited the Museum in order to see the airmail exhibit 



