The Unboxing Has Begun

Our new preservation project is under way! We’ve been pulling out tens of thousands of historical items—documents, slides, VHS tapes, film reels, audio cassettes, microfilm, and more—that tell the story of our nation’s aviation history and the heroes who made it. We’ve already made some extraordinary finds, among them, early film labeled “WWI flying & formations” and “WWI flight raid.”

To help document this archival undertaking, led by Heritage Preservation Specialist Megan Henry, we’re launching a series called “Opening the Archives.” Each month, Megan will pull an item from our collection and take you down a memory lane.

In this first installment, we’re sharing these before and after photos of our current facility, which we began renovating in 1999. We’ve been adding and upgrading ever since—most recently, opening the Joe Clark Innovation Lab to provide free and low-cost STEM-based learning experiences to the public.

Once we’ve finished cataloging and digitizing, you’ll be able to search through many more photos and other materials in the collections we publish on our website.

Making these remarkable assets accessible to the public will allow us to share the voices and faces of aviation legends—helping us understand them not just as heroes but as individuals who overcame challenges, pursued dreams, and shaped history.