Report on the National Air Museum 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 
ties of the National Air Museum for the fiscal year ended June 30, 
1959. 
On September 6, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the bill (S. 
1958), originally introduced by Senator Clinton P. Anderson and 
passed by the 85th Congress, authorizing and directing the Regents 
of the Smithsonian Institution to prepare plans, including drawings 
and specifications, for the construction of a suitable building for a 
National Air Museum to be located on the site bounded by Fourth and 
Seventh Streets SW., Independence Avenue, and Jefferson Drive. 
Thus, with the passage of this act (Public Law 85-935), another 
step forward has been taken toward the provision of adequate housing 
for the National Air Museum. The architectural firm of Harbeson, 
Hough, Livingston & Larson, of Philadelphia, Pa., is making prelim- 
inary studies and an estimate of planning costs for the building. 
A number of significant accessions were received. Among these 
were the first recovered nose cone from outer space, a replica of the 
Jupiter C rocket and satellite Explorer I, a recovered data capsule 
from outer space, some original documents of the early experiments 
in rocketry by Dr. Robert H. Goddard, and a Curtiss-Wright Jr. 
airplane. 
Considerable progress was made in the improvement and prepara- 
tion of storage and restoration facilities. 
Plans for a new exhibit in the Aircraft Building were approved, 
and construction will begin this fall. It is expected that the new 
exhibit will be opened in the spring of 1960. 
Information service in the form of technical, historical, and bio- 
graphical information pertaining to the development of aviation, 
furnished to Government agencies, schools, research workers, authors, 
students, and the public, increased in scope and in volume during the 
year. Many useful acquisitions to the Museum’s library, reference, 
and photographic files were received. 
New staff members reporting for duty include Kenneth E. Newland, 
curator; Robert Meyer, junior curator; and Robert Wood, museum 
aide. 
Walter M. Male, associate curator, has been assigned to Suitland, 
Md., as operations manager in charge of the Museum’s restoration 
program. 
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