1969: A Year in the Collections

• 

  Apollo 11

  Physical Description

  Apollo 11, July 16, 1969. Painting (possibly watercolor) on paper. Page from a sketchbook. The white rocket of Apollo 11 is defined by the explosive strokes of blue, green, and brown that emanate from the center of the page. The red-orange gantry supports the rocket on the left, and the entire scene is reflected in the lower half of the page. Text along the right margin says: "4:30am July 16, 1969 Apollo 11."

  Summary

  In March 1962, James Webb, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, suggested that artists be enlisted to document the historic effort to send the first human beings to the moon. John Walker, director of the National Gallery of Art, was among those who applauded the idea, urging that artists be encouraged "…not only to record the physical appearance of the strange new world which space technology is creating, but to edit, select and probe for the inner meaning and emotional impact of events which may change the destiny of our race."

  Working together, James Dean, a young artist employed by the NASA Public Affairs office, and Dr. H. Lester Cooke, curator of paintings at the National Gallery of Art, created a program that dispatched artists to NASA facilities with an invitation to paint whatever interested them. The result was an extraordinary collection of works of art proving, as one observer noted, "that America produced not only scientists and engineers capable of shaping the destiny of our age, but also artists worthy to keep them company." Transferred to the National Air and Space Museum in 1975, the NASA art collection remains one of the most important elements of what has become perhaps the world's finest collection of aerospace themed art.

  Long Description

  The spring of 1962 was a busy time for the men and women of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. On February 20, John H. Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. For the first time since the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. was positioned to match and exceed Soviet achievements in space. NASA was an agency with a mission -- to meet President John F. Kennedy's challenge of sending human beings to the moon and returning them safely to earth by the end of the decade. Within a year, three more Mercury astronauts would fly into orbit. Plans were falling into place for a follow-on series of two-man Gemini missions that would set the stage for the Apollo voyages to the moon.

  In early March 1962, artist Bruce Stevenson brought his large portrait of Alan Shepard, the first American to fly in space, to NASA headquarters.(1) James E. Webb, the administrator of NASA, assumed that the artist was interested in painting a similar portrait of all seven of the Mercury astronauts. Instead, Webb voiced his preference for a group portrait that would emphasize "…the team effort and the togetherness that has characterized the first group of astronauts to be trained by this nation." More important, the episode convinced the administrator that "…we should consider in a deliberate way just what NASA should do in the field of fine arts to commemorate the …historic events" of the American space program.(2)

  In addition to portraits, Webb wanted to encourage artists to capture the excitement and deeper meaning of space flight. He imagined "a nighttime scene showing the great amount of activity involved in the preparation of and countdown for launching," as well as paintings that portrayed activities in space. "The important thing," he concluded, "is to develop a policy on how we intend to treat this matter now and in the next several years and then to get down to the specifics of how we intend to implement this policy…." The first step, he suggested, was to consult with experts in the field, including the director of the National Gallery of Art, and the members of the Fine Arts Commission, the arbiters of architectural and artistic taste who passed judgment on the appearance of official buildings and monuments in the nation's capital.

  Webb's memo of March 16, 1962 was the birth certificate of the NASA art program. Shelby Thompson, the director of the agency's Office of Educational Programs and Services, assigned James Dean, a young artist working as a special assistant in his office, to the project. On June 19, 1962 Thompson met with the Fine Arts Commission, requesting advice as to how "…NASA should develop a basis for use of paintings and sculptures to depict significant historical events and other activities in our program."(3)

  David E. Finley, the chairman and former director of the National Gallery of Art, applauded the idea, and suggested that the agency should study the experience of the U.S. Air Force, which had amassed some 800 paintings since establishing an art program in 1954. He also introduced Thompson to Hereward Lester Cooke, curator of paintings at the National Gallery of Art.

  An imposing bear of a man standing over six feet tall, Lester Cooke was a graduate of Yale and Oxford, with a Princeton PhD. The son of a physics professor and a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Forces, he was both fascinated by science and felt a personal connection to flight. On a professional level, Cooke had directed American participation in international art competitions and produced articles and illustrations for the National Geographic Magazine. He jumped at the chance to advise NASA on its art program.

  While initially cautious with regard to the time the project might require of one of his chief curators, John Walker, director of the National Gallery, quickly became one of the most vocal supporters of the NASA art initiative. Certain that "the present space exploration effort by the United States will probably rank among the more important events in the history of mankind," Walker believed that "every possible method of documentation …be used." Artists should be expected "…not only to record the physical appearance of the strange new world which space technology is creating, but to edit, select and probe for the inner meaning and emotional impact of events which may change the destiny of our race." He urged quick action so that "the full flavor of the achievement …not be lost," and hoped that "the past held captive" in any paintings resulting from the effort "will prove to future generations that America produced not only scientists and engineers capable of shaping the destiny of our age, but also artists worthy to keep them company."(4)

  Gordon Cooper, the last Mercury astronaut to fly, was scheduled to ride an Atlas rocket into orbit on May 15, 1963. That event would provide the ideal occasion for a test run of the plan Cooke and Dean evolved to launch the art program. In mid-February, Cooke provided Thompson with a list of the artists who should be invited to travel to Cape Canaveral to record their impressions of the event. Andrew Wyeth, whom the curator identified as "the top artist in the U.S. today," headed the list. When the time came, however, Andrew Wyeth did not go to the Cape for the Cooper launch, but his son Jamie would participate in the program during the Gemini and Apollo years.

  The list of invited artists also included Peter Hurd, Andrew Wyeth's brother-in-law, who had served as a wartime artist with the Army Air Force; George Weymouth, whom Wyeth regarded as "the best of his pupils"; and John McCoy, another Wyeth associate. Cooke regarded the next man on the list, Robert McCall, who had been running the Air Force art program, as "America's top aero-space illustrator. Paul Calle and Robert Shore had both painted for the Air Force program. Mitchell Jamieson, who had run a unit of the Navy art program during WW II, rounded out the program. Alfred Blaustein was the only artist to turn down the invitation.

  The procedures that would remain in place for more than a decade were given a trial run in the spring of 1963. The artists received an $800 commission, which had to cover any expenses incurred while visiting a NASA facility where they could paint whatever interested them. In return, they would present their finished pieces, and all of their sketches, to the space agency. The experiment was a success, and what might have been a one-time effort to dispatch artists to witness and record the Gordon Cooper flight provided the basis for an on-going, if small-scale, program. By the end of 1970, Jim Dean and Lester Cooke had dispatched 38 artists to Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches and to other NASA facilities.

  The art program became everything that Jim Webb had hoped it would be. NASA artists produced stunning works of art that documented the agency's step-by-step progress on the way to the moon. The early fruits of the program were presented in a lavishly illustrated book, Eyewitness to Space (New York: Abrams, 1971). Works from the collection illustrated NASA publications and were the basis for educational film strips aimed at school children. In 1965 and again in 1969 the National Gallery of Art mounted two major exhibitions of work from the NASA collection. The USIA sent a selection of NASA paintings overseas, while the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service created two exhibitions of NASA art that toured the nation.

  "Since we …began," Dean noted in a reflection on the tenth anniversary of the program, the art initiative had resulted in a long string of positive "press interviews and reports, congressional inquiries, columns in the Congressional Record, [and] White House reports." The NASA effort, he continued, had directly inspired other government art programs. "The Department of the Interior (at least two programs), the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Army and even the Veterans Administration have, or are starting, art programs." While he could not take all of the credit, Dean insisted that "our success has encouraged other agencies to get involved and they have succeeded, too."(5)

  For all of that, he noted, it was still necessary to "defend" the role of art in the space agency. Dean, with the assistance of Lester Cooke, had been a one-man show, handling the complex logistics of the program, receiving and cataloguing works of art, hanging them himself in museums or on office walls, and struggling to find adequate storage space. In January 1976, a NASA supervisor went so far as to comment that: "Mr. Dean is far too valuable in other areas to spend his time on the relatively menial …jobs he is often burdened with in connection with the art program."(6) Dean placed a much higher value on the art collection, and immediately recommended that NASA officials either devote additional resources to the program, or get out of the art business and turn the existing collection over the National Air and Space Museum, "where it can be properly cared for."(7)

  In January 1974 a new building for the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) was taking shape right across the street from NASA headquarters. Discussions regarding areas of cooperation were already underway between NASA officials and museum director Michael Collins, who had flown to the moon as a member of the Apollo 11 crew. Before the end of the year, the space agency had transferred its art collection to the NASM. Mike Collins succeeded in luring Jim Dean to the museum, as well.

  The museum already maintained a small art collection, including portraits of aerospace heroes, an assortment of 18th and 19th century prints illustrating the early history of the balloon, an eclectic assortment of works portraying aspects of the history of aviation and a few recent prizes, including several Norman Rockwell paintings of NASA activity. With the acquisition of the NASA art, the museum was in possession of one of the world's great collections of art exploring aerospace themes. Jim Dean would continue to build the NASM collection as the museum's first curator of art. Following his retirement in 1980, other curators would follow in his footsteps, continuing to strengthen the role of art at the NASM. Over three decades after its arrival, however, the NASA art accession of 2,091 works still constitutes almost half of the NASM art collection.

  (1) Stevenson's portrait is now in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum (1981-627)

  (2) James E. Webb to Hiden Cox, March 16, 1962, memorandum in the NASA art historical collection, Aeronautics Division, National air and Space Museum. Webb's preference for a group portrait of the astronauts was apparently not heeded. In the end, Stevenson painted an individual portrait of John Glenn, which is also in the NASM collection (1963-398).

  (3) Shelby Thompson, memorandum for the record, July 6, 1962, NASA art historical collection, NASA, Aeronautics Division.

  (4) John Walker draft of a talk, March 5, 1965, copy in NASA Art historical collection, NASM Aeronautics Division.

  (5) James Dean, memorandum for the record, August 6, 1973, NASA art history collection, NASM Aeronautics Division.

  (6) Director of Planning and Media Development to Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, January 24, 1974, NASA art history collection, NASM Aeronautics Division.

  (7) James Dean to the Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, January 24, 1974, copy in NASA Art history Collection, Aeronautics Division, NASM.

  Tom D. Crouch

  Senior Curator, Aeronautics

  National Air and Space Museum

  Smithsonian Institution

  July 26, 2007

  Date

  1969

  Artist

  Dale Meyers

  Inventory Number

  A19751251000

  Data Source

  National Air and Space Museum

• 

  Astronaut Lunch Box

  Description (Brief)

  This steel lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1969 to take advantage of the excitement over the moon landing. The exterior features images from the Apollo 11 mission, including Neil Armstrong’s first step onto the lunar surface, and the command module’s splashdown. There is an illustrated National Safety Council "Safety First" message printed in black and white on the interior lid, and the bottom features an image of the plaque that was left on the lunar surface.

  Date made

  1969

  maker

  Aladdin

  ID Number

  2001.3087.14.01

  nonaccession number

  2001.3087

  catalog number

  2001.3087.14.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Poster, NASA, Manned Flight Awareness

  Summary

  This poster depicts “Snoopy” holding an umbrella to protect a box. The text reads, “Kid gloves care will get us there.” On the box is the NASA label for spacecraft components in transit, “Critical Space Item / Handle with Extreme Care.”

  Cartoonist, Charles, M. Schulz and United Feature Syndicate, distributor of the Peanuts comic strip, agreed to have “Snoopy” be the icon for job safety at NASA. Schulz produced drawings of “Snoopy” to use on posters. Following a tragic fire that killed three Apollo astronauts on January 27, 1967, Albert M. Chop, director of public affairs at the Manned Spacecraft Center, developed the Silver Snoopy Award, and negotiated the use of “Snoopy” with Schulz and United Feature Syndicate.

  NASA’s Manned Flight Awareness, a program begun in 1963, and later renamed Space Flight Awareness, created posters to enhance employee motivation for job quality and flight safety within NASA and its contractors.

  Date

  1969

  Manufacturer

  NASA

  Inventory Number

  A20150342000

  Data Source

  National Air and Space Museum

• 

  Woodstock Music and Art Fair ticket

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1969

  associated date

  1969 08 17

  associated institution

  Woodstock Music and Art Fair

  ID Number

  1983.0154.01

  accession number

  1983.0154

  catalog number

  1983.0154.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Woodstock Poster

  Location

  Currently not on view

  Date made

  1969

  associated institution

  Woodstock Music and Art Fair

  ID Number

  1987.0717.10

  accession number

  1987.0717

  catalog number

  1987.0717.010

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Laugh-In Lunch Box

  Description (Brief)

  This metal lunch box was manufactured by Aladdin Industries in 1969. The lunch boxes features imagery from the popular TV comedy show, Laugh-In. Laugh-In was a sketch comedy variety show that originally ran from 1968-1973 on NBC.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  Date made

  1969

  collected for nmah

  Smithsonian Institution

  maker

  Aladdin

  ID Number

  1988.3160.36

  nonaccession number

  1988.3160

  catalog number

  1988.3160.36

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Neil Armstrong

  Exhibition Label

  The Apollo 11 mission in July 1969—NASA’s first attempt to land men on the moon—was a unifying moment for America in a decade rife with social discord, racial violence, and antiwar protests. Time covered every facet of the nine-day mission, as noted by one correspondent, with “a deep, visceral understanding that here was history, and perhaps the act that may ultimately guarantee man’s survival.” Looking back, that was perhaps an overstatement, but there was no denying that it was a “once-in-a-lifetime emotion” for many who watched on television as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the lunar surface for the first time. For this special issue, Time selected one of its favorite artists, Louis Glanzman, who had made twenty-nine covers for the magazine. His painting depicting Armstrong on the moon carrying the American flag and a camera has been one of Time’s most popular covers ever.

  Neil Armstrong 1930–2012

  En julio de 1969, la misión Apolo 11, primer intento de la NASA de colocar un ser humano sobre la faz de la luna, fue un momento unificador para el pueblo estadounidense en una década plagada de desacuerdos sociales, violencia racial y protestas antibélicas. Time cubrió cada faceta de los nueve días que duró la misión con “el entendimiento profundo y visceral de que se estaba haciendo historia y quizá el gesto que a la postre garantizaría la supervivencia de la humanidad”, según comentó un corresponsal. Mirando atrás, quizá fue decir demasiado, pero es innegable que muchos sintieron “una emoción única en la vida” al ver por televisión a Neil Armstrong y Buzz Aldrin caminar sobre la superficie lunar por primera vez. Para esta edición especial, Time seleccionó a uno de sus artistas favoritos, Louis Glanzman, quien ya había hecho veintinueve portadas. Su pintura de Armstrong en la luna sosteniendo la bandera de Estados Unidos y una cámara ha sido una de las portadas más populares en la historia de la revista.

  Louis S. Glanzman (1922–2013)

  Acrílico y caseína sobre masonita, 1969

  Portada de Time, 25 de julio de 1969

  Date

  1969

  Artist

  Louis S. Glanzman, 1922 - 2013

  Sitter

  Neil Alden Armstrong, 5 Aug 1930 - 25 Aug 2012

  Object number

  NPG.78.TC844

  Data Source

  National Portrait Gallery

• 

  Joe Namath

  Date

  1969

  Artist

  Philippe Halsman, 1906 - 1979

  Sitter

  Joe Namath, born 31 May 1943

  Object number

  S/NPG.82.51

  Data Source

  National Portrait Gallery

• 

  B.B. King - Symphony Hall, Boston, Mass. - 1969

  Description

  This image depicts musician B.B. King playing his guitar. Wearing a dark suit, light tie, light pinstripe shirt with french cuffs, he holds his guitar to the right side of his torso, strumming with his right hand. He wears a ring on each hand. His eyes closed, he faces slightly to his left, towards the viewer. Taken from below, this angle gives him a monumental aspect.

  Date

  1969

  Photograph by

  Robert Houston, American, born 1935

  Subject of

  B.B. King, American, 1925 - 2015

  Object number

  2014.116.25

  Data Source

  National Museum of African American History and Culture

• 

  Cookie Monster Puppet

  Description (Brief)

  Cookie Monster is a live-hand puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by David Rudman. In a live-hand puppet, like Cookie Monster, one of the performer’s hands is in the puppet’s head while the other is in one of the puppet’s arms, which has gloves for hands. Another puppeteer is usually needed to operate the other arm, which is known as right-handing. Cookie Monster is one of the main characters on Sesame Street. He is covered in blue fur with large googly eyes. He constantly eats anything and everything, but cookies are his favorite.

  Cookie Monster evolved from a monster created by Jim Henson for a General Foods Canada commercial in 1966. This character advertised the snack foods Wheels, Crowns, and Flutes along with two other monsters and was known as the Wheel Stealer. The Wheel Stealer continued to evolve as he appeared in an IBM commercial and on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967. He eventually made his way to Sesame Street after losing his teeth. Once there, he gained his love of cookies and the name Cookie Monster by the second season.

  This puppet is the original Cookie Monster puppet created in 1969 for Sesame Street. He is able to feed himself because his hands are simply gloves for the performer’s hands, and he has a hole in his mouth that runs down the performer’s sleeve. The cookies that are eaten by Cookie Monster are rice crackers that are made to look like cookies because the oils from actual cookies would damage the puppet.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1969

  performer

  Oz, Frank

  Rudman, David

  maker

  Henson, Jim

  ID Number

  2013.0101.20

  accession number

  2013.0101

  catalog number

  2013.0101.20

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Apollo 11 Crew

  Provenance

  The artist; gift to NPG through group of donors.

  Date

  1969

  Artist

  Ronald Carl Anderson, 1927 - 1981

  Sitter

  Neil Alden Armstrong, 5 Aug 1930 - 25 Aug 2012

  Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr., born 20 Jan 1930

  Michael Collins, born 31 Oct 1930

  Object number

  NPG.70.36

  Data Source

  National Portrait Gallery

• 

  Ernie Puppet

  Description (Brief)

  Ernie is a live-hand puppet originally performed by Jim Henson and currently performed by Peter Linz. In a live-hand puppet, like Ernie, one of the performer’s hands is in the puppet’s head while the other is in one of the puppet’s arms, which has gloves for hands. Another puppeteer is usually needed to operate the other arm, which is known as right-handing.

  Ernie lives on Sesame Street with his best friend and roommate Bert. He enjoys taking bubble baths with his rubber duck, and singing the song “Rubber Duckie” about his beloved bath toy. It was released as a single and peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 26, 1970. Ernie, with Bert, has been a part of Sesame Street since the first test pilot episodes and the premier in 1969, and this puppet is the original Ernie puppet used for those pilot episodes.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1969

  performer

  Henson, Jim

  Linz, Peter

  maker

  Henson, Jim

  ID Number

  2013.0101.14

  accession number

  2013.0101

  catalog number

  2013.0101.14

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman

  Exhibition Label

  Mia Farrow was twenty-three and Dustin Hoffman was thirty-one in early 1969 when Time magazine reported on them. “The casting together of the two fastest-rising performers in the business was inevitable. . . . It happened to Farrow and Hoffman after one big hit apiece.” Hers was Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and his was The Graduate (1967). Now cast together as chance lovers, they were performing in the soon-to-be-released “contemporary love story” John and Mary (1969). Time used the occasion to focus on the lives of these two children of Hollywood—she was the daughter of director John Farrow and actress Maureen O’Sullivan. And he was the son of a set decorator for Columbia Pictures, named after the silent screen actor Dustin Farnum.

  Mia Farrow tenía veintitrés años y Dustin Hoffman treinta y uno cuando a principios de 1969 Time les hizo un reportaje. “Reunir en una película a los dos artistas de más rápido ascenso en la industria era inevitable [...]. Es lo que ocurrió con Farrow y Hoffman luego de sus respectivos exitazos”. El de ella fue Rosemary’s Baby (1968), y el de él The Graduate (1967). Ahora trabajaban juntos en una “historia de amor contemporánea” pronta a salir al mercado y titulada John and Mary (1969). Time aprovechó la ocasión para poner en foco las vidas de estos dos hijos de Hollywood —ella era hija del director John Farrow y la actriz Maureen O’Sullivan. Él era hijo de un escenarista de Columbia Pictures y llevaba el nombre de un actor del cine silente, Dustin Farnum—.

  Date

  1969

  Artist

  Philippe Halsman, 1906 - 1979

  Sitter

  Mia Farrow, born 1946

  Dustin Hoffman, born 8 Aug 1937

  Object number

  NPG.78.TC448

  Data Source

  National Portrait Gallery

• 

  Julia Lunch Box

  Description (Brief)

  This metal lunch box was manufactured by Thermos in 1969. The lunch box features imagery from Diahann Carroll’s hit TV series, Julia which aired from 1968-1971 on NBC. Julia was applauded for its depiction of African-American life in a suburban setting, and this lunch box is notable for being one of the first depictions of a black woman on a commerically-available lunch box.

  Date made

  1969

  collected for nmah

  Smithsonian Institution

  maker

  Thermos

  ID Number

  1988.3160.37

  nonaccession number

  1988.3160

  catalog number

  1988.3160.37

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Bert Puppet

  Description (Brief)

  Bert is a hand-rod puppet originally performed by Frank Oz and currently performed by Eric Jacobson. In a hand-rod puppet, like Bert, the performer’s dominant hand goes into the puppet’s head and operates the mouth and sometimes other facial features. The less dominant hand controls the arm rods, which are thin rods connected to the puppet’s hands. Bert lives on Sesame Street with his best friend and roommate Ernie. He has a serious personality and a pet pigeon named Bernice. Bert, with Ernie, has been a part of Sesame Street since the first test pilot episodes and the premier in 1969, and this puppet is the original Bert used for those pilot episodes.

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1969

  performer

  Oz, Frank

  Jacobson, Eric

  maker

  Henson, Jim

  ID Number

  2013.0101.13

  accession number

  2013.0101

  catalog number

  2013.0101.13

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Western Electric "Princess" Phone

  Description

  Western Electric manufactured the pink “Princess” telephone beginning in 1959. The original Princess phone was model 701 that needed an external ringer; this phone is model 702B that was manufactured in September of 1969 with the ringer moved inside the base. Henry Dreyfuss, already popular for his design of the Western Electric 302 tabletop phone, designed the Princess telephone. As telephones became mainstream instruments of teen communication, phone manufacturers began designing specifically for the growing teenage market. Available in white, beige, pink, blue, and turquoise the Princess was designed to be a bedside phone for teenagers—specifically teenage girls. To facilitate bedside use, the phone took up only a third of the space of the standard desk phone, while containing a night light under the dial. These features were brought to the fore with the advertising slogan “It’s little, it’s lovely, it lights.”

  date made

  1969-09

  maker

  Western Electric

  ID Number

  2015.0136.01

  accession number

  2015.0136

  catalog number

  2015.0136.01

  model number

  702B

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

• 

  Continental Hawaii

  Physical Description

  HAWAII CONTINENTAL. Multicolor print advertising service to Hawaii. Iconographic print of a brown-skinned man in orange and red swim trunks and a pink lei, surfing. In the background a volcano explodes with a swirl of warm colors referencing above a lush, green jungle. The sinuous black lines and bright solid colors are similar to psychadelic posters from the decade (1960's). Screen print.

  Summary

  Fly Now: The National Air and Space Museum Poster Collection

  Throughout their history, posters have been a significant means of mass communication, often with striking visual effect. Wendy Wick Reaves, the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery Curator of Prints and Drawings, comments that "sometimes a pictorial poster is a decorative masterpiece-something I can't walk by without a jolt of aesthetic pleasure. Another might strike me as extremely clever advertising … But collectively, these 'pictures of persuasion,' as we might call them, offer a wealth of art, history, design, and popular culture for us to understand. The poster is a familiar part of our world, and we intuitively understand its role as propaganda, promotion, announcement, or advertisement."

  Reaves' observations are especially relevant for the impressive array of aviation posters in the National Air and Space Museum's 1300+ artifact collection. Quite possibly the largest publicly-held collection of its kind in the United States, the National Air and Space Museum's posters focus primarily on advertising for aviation-related products and activities. Among other areas, the collection includes 19th-century ballooning exhibition posters, early 20th-century airplane exhibition and meet posters, and twentieth-century airline advertisements.

  The posters in the collection represent printing technologies that include original lithography, silkscreen, photolithography, and computer-generated imagery. The collection is significant both for its aesthetic value and because it is a unique representation of the cultural, commercial and military history of aviation. The collection represents an intense interest in flight, both public and private, during a significant period of its technological and social development.

  Date

  circa 1969

  Sponsor

  Continental Air Lines

  Inventory Number

  A19960184000

  Data Source

  National Air and Space Museum

• 

  Up 1

  Catalogue Status

  Research in Progress

  Description

  Doughnut-shaped lounge chair of thick foam in red upholstery.

  Date

  1969

  Designer

  Gaetano Pesce, Italian, b. 1939

  Producer

  Cassina and Busnelli Italia (C & B), Como, Italy

  Accession Number

  1991-94-5

  Data Source

  Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

• 

  Paul Newman

  Exhibition Label

  Born Shaker Heights, Ohio

  Paul Newman is one of the most iconic figures in American film and popular culture. His career was long, successful, and well-honored; he wore his fame lightly, with a grace that only complemented his charisma. His brooding good looks made him a natural for roles in productions like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. His career never really had any down periods, as he appeared in a string of consistently excellent films. Newman finally won a Best Actor Oscar in 1986 for reprising his 1961 role as Fast Eddie Felsen in The Color of Money. The award was regarded as overdue recognition for an actor so consistently excellent that he had been taken for granted. Newman also was a successful race-car driver, operated a gourmet food brand for charity, and had a legendarily long marriage to fellow actor Joanne Woodward.

  Date

  1969

  Artist

  Unidentified Artist

  Sitter

  Paul Newman, 26 Jan 1925 - 26 Sept 2008

  Object number

  NPG.2011.122

  Data Source

  National Portrait Gallery

• 

  Newport 69 at Devonshire Downs program

  Location

  Currently not on view

  date made

  1969

  depicted (sitter)

  Hendrix, Jimi

  ID Number

  2013.3001.059

  nonaccession number

  2013.3001

  catalog number

  2013.3001.059

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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