136 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



developments; the State Department asked for help in preparing 

 articles on aeronautical subjects for use in foreign broadcasts and 

 papers; and the Weather Bureau was supplied with photographs of 

 famous flights for which that Bureau had supplied vital meteorologi- 

 cal information. The artist Allyn Cox required accurate details of 

 the Wright Brothers' first aeroplane and facts about the air pioneers 

 Langley and Chanute for incorporation in the frieze which he is 

 completing on the rotunda wall of the United States Capitol. Several 

 schools, including the Northrop Aero Institute and the School of 

 Aeronautics in Denver, requested and received help from this Museum. 

 The Institute of Aeronautical Sciences sent its curator to the National 

 Air Museum to study exhibition procedures and methods of recording 

 material ; and drawings, photographs, and data on aircraft were ex- 

 changed to mutual advantage with museums in California, France, 

 Holland, and England. Slides for lectures were supplied to B. L. 

 Whelan of Sikorsky Aircraft recalling early days in aviation, and to 

 Capt. Ralph Barnaby, USN Ret., describing the gliders of the Wright 

 Brothers. The head curator gave 11 lectures during the year on vari- 

 ous phases of aeronautics and the work of the National Air Museum, 

 speaking to Reserve units of the Navy and Air Force, airline groups, 

 and to the American Society of Civil Engineers at their national 

 meeting in Chicago, September 5. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN REFERENCE MATERIAL 



The documentation of the aeronautical collection is an important 

 phase of museum work and must be maintained together with the 

 preservation of the specimens. Without such documents as original 

 correspondence records, descriptions of technical details and perform- 

 ance, drawings, photographs, and related texts, the labeling of speci- 

 mens and the furnishing of information about them would be difficult 

 and perhaps inaccurate. With each accession the Museum endeavors 

 to obtain such data as opportunity permits, and seeks to procure 

 books, magazines, catalogs, and other literature pertinent to the 

 general history of aeronautics. Frequently other persons studying the 

 history and development of aircraft and patriotically interested in 

 improving the national collections will give or exchange with the 

 Museum from their collections. Some material has been received 

 from bequests. 



From the Air Force, 170 boxes of technical orders were received. 

 These cover such subjects as maintenance of aircraft, instructions for 

 disassembly and overhaul, pilot's operating instructions and other 

 operational data, and are a very valuable source of information. These 

 documents are being screened in order to extract data relative to the 

 collection. The General Services Administration, Department of 

 Archives, has generously supplied from its files a number of photo- 



