Aerospace history is more down-to-earth through a grant and hard work
A completed grant project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission has made more of Virginia Tech’s Archives of American Aerospace Engineering collections available to the public.
Kat Zinn, project archivist for University Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives, and team members collectively spent the past two years processing 17 backlog collections of papers and photographs from pilots, astronauts, physicists, chemists, engineers, and National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and NASA employees.
“I really liked working with the Samuel Herrick papers,” said Zinn. “Generally recognized as a founder of astrodynamics, his work was so important for a lot of the technological advancements we have in the field today. Getting to handle it and seeing how his ideas developed over the years was very rewarding. Seeing his correspondence with physicist R.H. Goddard was also really cool.”
The project included documenting the tales of American flight and space exploration, adding descriptions to each collection, and creating finding aids so anyone can find, use, and appreciate this history. Many items are technical papers and letters. A few veer from the expected.
“I really enjoyed working with the materials in the James Dean collection,” said Zinn. “Dean founded the NASA art program, so there were a lot of really fun images, drawings, and sketches. He also worked with astronaut Michael Collins on the illustrations for his book, ‘Liftoff.’ It was cool to see the visualizations of something no one had ever seen before.”
During the project, Zinn coordinated a paper airplane competition and exhibit to highlight some of the collections’ treasures, and the team created the online John Parsons Exhibit and Shooting for the Stars Exhibit to showcase materials. She looks forward to helping others explore space through history.
“We’ve had some of these materials for a long time, and they’ve only recently been made accessible to the public,” said Zinn. “I think it’s important for information from our past to be accessible. The collections we have are meant to be shared and researched.”
These and other Archives of American Aerospace Engineering (AAAE) collections are available in Special Collections and University Archives on the first floor of the Newman Library, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The best way to explore the collections is through the AAAE LibGuide. Contact Special Collections and University Archives at 540-231-6308 or specref@vt.edu if you have questions about these and other collections.
