In honor of National Aviation Day, Smithsonian Libraries (SIL) turns to a piece of history found in the Ramsey Room. Established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939, National Aviation Day is celebrated every year on August 19th, which is also the birthday of Orville Wright.
Tag: aviation
In honor of Memorial Day, we feature this recently digitized book, Morale: the Navy’s Trans-Atlantic flight.
In the early 20th century, few things excited the public more than the development of mechanized flying machines. Whether aircraft or dirigible, these machines were documented in the specialized and popular literature of the day. The Smithsonian Libraries is committed to digitizing its special collection of rare books and journals on the invention and growth of aviation. Many of the tiles we’ve scanned and digitized to date are accessible through the Internet Archive.
It’s December 17th — the anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first machine powered air flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In remembrance of that date 109 years ago, the Smithsonian Libraries is featuring The Wright Flyer: An Engineering Perspective by Howard S. Wolko and John David Anderson. The online version of this 1987 Smithsonian Institution Press book is available via our Digital Library.
Here are some of the newest additions to the National Air and Space Museum Library collection.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh was also a prolific author. Her most famous work, Gift from the Sea, was originally published in 1955. This lyrical essay-style book was inspired by a visit to Captiva Island off the coast of Florida. In this introspective book Mrs. Lindbergh uses the natural imagery of the seashells found on the island’s beaches to reflect on the life of the American woman in the 20th century.
Today, August 19, is National Aviation Day, as well as being Orville Wright’s birthday. He was born in 1871. The Libraries has many titles in its collections centering on Orville and his brother . . . Happy birthday, Orville!