Treasures of NOAA's Ark: Journey Through Time!

Celebrating 200 Years of Science, Service and Stewardship

Feb. 5-14, 2007
Silver Spring, MD

In 2007 NOAA celebrated 200 years of science, service and stewardship. In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson founded the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (as the Survey of the Coast) to provide nautical charts to the maritime community for safe passage into American ports and along our extensive coastline. The Weather Bureau was founded 1870 and, one year later, the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries was founded. Individually, these organizations were America's first physical science agency, America's first agency dedicated specifically to the atmospheric sciences, and America's first conservation agency.

The 2007 NOAA Heritage Week featured a virtual “time machine” in the NOAA Science Center that took you on a fun- and fact-filled journey through 200 years of federal science, service and stewardship—from 1807 to the present. We’ll take you back to the early days of U.S. coastal and ocean exploration and weather forecasting. Then, we will propel you forward to the NOAA of today!

Visitors had the opportunity to view:

  * early scientific instruments, maps and charts
  * a real weather balloon and undersea lab
  * an original engraving by James Whistler, who worked for the U.S. Coast Survey before he painted “Whistler’s Mother.”

Treasures of NOAA’s Ark: Journey Through Time is a NOAA Heritage Week event