ABOUT THE NASM ARCHIVES DIVISION
WHO WE ARE:
Part of the Museum's Department of
Collections and Research, the Archives Division supports the mission
of the National Air and Space Museum by acquiring and preserving for public
and curatorial use documentary materials of air and space flight. These
documentary materials, which span the history of flight from ancient times
to the present day, include a wide range of visual and textual materials,
many emphasizing the technical aspects of air and space craft and their
propulsion systems.
WHAT WE DO:
The Archives Division organizes and describes these materials and assists
the public and Museum staff in using these items in their research. The
archival collection contains approximately
10,000 cubic feet of material including an estimated 1.7 million photographs,
700,000 feet of motion picture film, and 2 million technical drawings.
WHERE WE ARE:
The Archives Division consists of two units. One unit shares space with
the NASM Branch of Smithsonian
Institution Libraries on the third floor, west end of the National
Air and Space Museum in downtown Washington, D.C. The other unit is located
in Building 12 of the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage
Facility in Suitland, Maryland. For more information, see Planning
a Visit.
WHAT WE CAN PROVIDE:
We encourage researchers to contact us
by mail first to determine what materials we have that will be useful
to their interests. Archives staff will make a limited search of the holdings
in response to inquiries. More complex inquiries
will require a visit to the archives by researchers.
Copies of documents, technical drawings and photographs from Archives
collections are available for a fee.
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