Reports of the Museums and Research Institutes 



45 



Division of Aeronautic curator R.E.G. Davies was selected 

 to deliver the prestigious Sight Lecture at The Wings Club in 

 New York City in May 2000. Previous Sight lecturers have 

 included Igor Sikorsky, Juan Tripp, and Neil Armstrong. 

 David DeVorkin presenred his first lecture as a Harlow Shap- 

 ley Visiting Lecturer at Cabrini College in Philadelphia on 

 the "Origins and Development of Astrophysics." DeVorkin 

 also delivered the Benjamin Dean Lectute at the California 

 Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. 



CEPS received new research funding from the NASA 

 Planetary and Geology and Geophysics, Mars Data Analysis, 

 and Natural Hazards Programs. CEPS also secured a third 

 year of funding from Honda for the Reflections on Earth 

 program, which develops educational materials related to 

 satellite remote sensing and distributes them through 

 teacher workshops and a dedicated Web site. Recent high- 

 lights include field projects to remote volcanoes in Peru, 

 ancient flood deposits in Austtalia and Namibia, analyses of 

 new data from the Mats Global Surveyor mission, and publi- 

 cation of a book on volcanoes throughout the Solar System. 



Several long-term projects are under way that contribute to 

 the preparations tor the move to the Udvar-Hazy Center. The 

 Aeronautics Division continued work on a projecr to docu- 

 ment each aircraft in the collection by writing substantive 

 curatorial essays for each. The Space History Division also 

 continued to work to update the information about the col- 

 lection in the museum's Collections Information Database. 



With the completion last year of the restoration of the 

 Soviet SA-2 missile transporter, a World War I-vintage 

 Nieuport 28, and the Aichi Seiran, rhe museum shifted its 

 focus from full restorarion to preservation, cleaning, and in 

 some cases reassembling artifacts in preparation for the move 

 to the Udvar-Hazy Center. The Soviet MiG-15 preparation 

 was completed, and a rigorous preservation effort on the 

 NASM 19 1 5 WW I Ftench Caudron G 4 was begun. Other 

 aircraft in the resroration shop now are the Bowlus duPont 

 Falcon and Albatross gliders, the Curtiss JN-4, the Boeing 

 Stearman N2S-5, the Grunau Baby glider, the Krider Reis- 

 ner KR-34, the Grumman Gulfhawk II, the Curtiss Gulf- 

 hawk I, and the Piper PA- 18 Super Cub. These projects 

 included fabric repairs, airframe and engine cleaning and 

 preservation, fabricating transportation stands, and exhibit 

 enhancements. Fabric repairs were also done on the Bell 

 P-63 King Cobra and the Notth American O-47A. 



The NASM Collections Division continued its partner- 

 ship with Rolls Royce NA in the Rolls Royce Aviation 

 Heritage Trophy competition. The Collections Division 

 Chief served, for a second year, as rhe chief judge for the 

 competition and one othet Preservation/Restoration Unit 

 staff member also served as a judge. The museum's director, 

 John R. Dailey, during the National Championship Air 

 Races at Reno, Nevada, presented the trophy ro the winner. 



In order to accomplish an orderly artifact movement, the 

 collections database must be as complete and accurate as 

 possible. In 2000, NASM's newly installed Collections Infor- 

 mation System continued to mature. Continuing the work 

 begun in fiscal year 1999, collections staff completed the 



digitization of the museum's archive of black-and-white ob- 

 ject ID photos and began working on color transparencies 

 and other photo resources. Digital images are now created 

 and entered into the database as new accessions ate received. 



Similarly, work continued to reduce the number of 

 remaining backlog items, and to fully catalogue new acces- 

 sions. A program was also initiated to prepare a selection of 

 object records for eventual public access via the Web or in 

 kiosks on the museum floor. These initiatives were very suc- 

 cessful: by the end of fiscal year 2000, more than half of the 

 remaining backlog items had been catalogued and entered 

 into the system. 



To further prepare for moving the collections move to the 

 Udvat-Hazy Center, the Collections Processing Unit office 

 space was enlarged by 50 percent. This allowed for addi- 

 tional computer workstations that ate used by curators and 

 collections staff to add attifact information to the TMS. 

 Also, the space allowed for the addition of a photo backdrop 

 for digital imagery and two more computer workstations 

 and scanner that serves as a barcode system station. Major 

 equipment purchases directly related to the preparation for 

 the collections move during the year include two new fork- 

 lifts, and a new tractor trailer, which will be used ro move 

 the artifacts from the Gather Facility to the Hazy Center. 



The Conservation Unit also had a busy and productive 

 year during fiscal year 2000. In addition to the artifact treat- 

 ment and condition reporting responsibilities associated 

 with the collections move, the unit continued to ovetsee the 

 Save America's Treasure project within NASM. That project, 

 funded under a partnership between The White House Mil- 

 lennium Council and The National Trust for Historic 

 Preservation, is designed to save thteatened artifacts from 

 the Apollo Space program. The museum's Matetials Advi- 

 sory Group is researching complex issues involving spacesuit 

 matetials and theit deterioration and preservation. During 

 fiscal year 2000 work was complered on 88 objects including 

 six actual Apollo lunar spacesuits and various other space- 

 related components. Each suit was photographed, condition 

 reported, cleaned and stabilized, inserted with a museum- 

 quality mannequin, which was also created within the 

 Collections Division, and mounted on a newly designed tray 

 system for long-term storage. All data was updated in cura- 

 torial and conservation files and loaded into the TMS system. 

 A paper describing the ongoing conservation research was 

 delivered to the national meeting of the American Chemical 

 Society held in Washington, D.C., on August 25. 



This year's conservation intern performed a complete 

 cleaning and condition report on rhe Gemini 7 spacecraft and 

 the "Blink" comparator, an early optical instrument used by 

 astronomers and which is destined for the new "Exploting the 

 Universe" exhibition. Also receiving conservation cate and 

 condition reporring was the TV set used by John F. Kennedy 

 aboard the Convair 240 "Caroline" during his presidential 

 campaign. This object was the fitst artifact to be loaned by 

 the museum under the Secretary's new Affiliates Program. 



The Archives Division continued efforts to make its col- 

 lections more accessible to researchers and the public. It 



