Museum Monday

Where to see: one of D.B. Cooper’s parachutes

(D.B. Cooper pink parachute courtesy Washington State History Museum)

The only unsolved commercial airline hijacking in the U.S. remains the November 24, 1971 hijacking of Northwest Orient flight 305 to Seattle by someone who has come to be known as “D.B.” Cooper.

(Sketch courtesy FBI)

In 1971, Cooper boarded a Boeing 727 on Thanksgiving eve, November 24, that was heading from Portland, Oregon to Seattle.

During the flight, he passed a flight attendant a note saying that he had a bomb and would blow up the plane unless he was given $200,000 in $20 bills and some parachutes.

His demands were met and he parachuted out of the plane, with the money, somewhere over southwest Washington State.

In 1980 some of the money was found along the banks of a river. But Cooper remains at large.

And the mystery lingers on.

Cooper’s hijacking demands included four parachutes. He got them but didn’t choose the pink nylon reserve parachute that the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, WA is displaying this fall.

The parachute was part of the evidence the FBI recovered for its hijacking investigation and has since been given to the museum for safekeeping and occasional display.

You can see this parachute and contemplate what you think happened to Cooper and the money from September 22 through November 16, 2014.

If you can, come by the museum on November 14 for the History After Hours program.

I’ll be there for a presentation about some of the weird and wonderful objects, like the D.B. Cooper parachute, that museums rarely or never display.

Here’s a short video about D.B. Cooper from Seattle’s public TV station.

We’re on a boat: London’s HMS Belfast

Museum Monday: London’s HMS Belfast

For Museum Monday, we’re highlighting the HMS Belfast. This is a historic warship and a 9-deck floating museum permanently moored in London on the River Thames.

The Royal Navy ship is named after the Northern Ireland city of Belfast and is operated as one of the Imperial War Museums’ 5 sites.

The ship was launched on St. Patrick’s Day in March 1938 and saw action during World War II and the Korean War

Visitors should wear sturdy shoes and arrive ready for a workout. You’ll walk the ship’s nine decks and climb up and down steep ladders while learning about the ship’s role in naval history and the daily life of sailors that served on board.

What You’ll See on the HMS Belfast

Visitors to the HMS Belfast will get to see, and in some cases, experience areas of the ship that include giant machine rooms, the gun turret, and the Operations Room (with simulated radars, equipment lights, and touchscreen plotting table). Below the Water line is where the shell room, boiler room, and engine room are located.

950 people at a time lived and worked on the ship, so you’ll also see the ship’s mess deck, chapel, radio station, medical bay, dentist’s office, and bakery.

Ngaire Bushell, from the Imperial War Museum Public Engagement and Learning Team

Most visitors to the HMS Belfast take self-guided tours with the aid of the audio tour included in admission.

But because we were tagging along with Gatwick Airport mascot, Gary Gatwick, our ship guide was the nimble and knowledgeable Ngaire Bushell, a producer from the Imperial War Museum’s Public Engagement and Learning Team.

She not only knows everything about the history of the HMS Belfast and all its nooks and crannies but has met many sailors who served on the ship over time.

Planning an HMS Belfast visit? Here’s a short video about exhibits and experiences added and updated while the attraction was closed during the pandemic.

Museum Monday: All things Edgar Allan Poe

The Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia will be celebrating its 100th-anniversary April 28 through October 31, 2022, with an exhibit highlighting dozens of recently acquired Poe artifacts.

The list of artifacts includes Edgar Allen Poe’s pocket watch, which he owned while writing The Tell-Tale Heart, a horror story that, repeatedly mentions a watch.

“That means this might just be the very watch Poe was envisioning when he described the old man’s heartbeat as ‘a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton.’,” says Poe Museum curator Chris Semtner.

“The Tell-Tale Heart’ is a classic story we have read in school, heard at Halloween, and even seen recreated on The Simpsons, and having the watch is like holding a real-life piece of that story.”

The gold watch is engraved with “Edgar A. Poe.” And in 1842, Poe gave the watch to one of his creditors to pay off a debt.

Other new-to-the-museum Poe artifacts include his engagement ring, the earliest surviving copy of the last photo ever taken of Poe, and a piece of the coffin in which he was buried for the first 26 years after his death.

Exhibit notes declare the ring “sad evidence of the tragic love story of Poe and his first and last fiancée, Elmira Royster Shelton.”

The couple was engaged as teenagers, but Shelton’s dad broke it off. Poe and Shelton got engaged again, in the last months of Poe’s life. He gave her this ring with the name “Edgar” engraved on it. But Poe died just ten days before their wedding day.

The coffin fragment comes from the original coffin in which Poe was buried on October 8, 1849. In 1875, Poe’s body was moved across the cemetery from his unmarked grave to a better location where a large monument could be placed over his grave.

When the coffin was lifted from the ground, this piece fell off and was later owned by a
president of the Maryland Historical Society,

“Poe wrote so many stories about being buried alive that it seems only fitting that
we have a piece of the very coffin in which he was buried,” says museum curator Semtner.

Fragment of Poe coffin

The Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond features permanent exhibits of Poe’s manuscripts, personal items, clothing, and even a lock of the author’s hair. The exhibit of newly-acquired artifacts opens with an Unhappy Hour on April 28.

Opened in 1922, the Poe Museum is comprised of four buildings surrounding an Enchanted Garden constructed from the building materials salvaged from Poe’s homes and offices.

Museum Monday: Scientific Instruments at SFO

SFO Museum : Equinoctial inclining sundial  c. 1865

SFO Museum exhibits rare 19th to early 20th-century scientific instruments

SFO Museum: Double-scope theodolite  c. 1890–1910

The newest exhibition from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is filled with rare mid-nineteenth century to early twentieth-century scientific instruments.

At a glance, they are clearly works of mechanical know-how and art. But these objects also tell a story about the emergence of modern science and the specialized instruments scientists built and used to explore the world.

From the exhibition release:

When modern science emerged in the seventeenth century, scientists invented specialized instruments to explore the world and universe in a closer, more logical manner. These intriguing devices facilitated the careful study of almost all facets of life through the research and demonstration of ideas and theories. During the nineteenth century, new technologies allowed for the precision manufacturing of scientific instruments. An array of instruments assisted some of the most brilliant minds on Earth as scientists made early discoveries in the fields of electrodynamics and atomic theory.

This exhibition in the Harvey Milk Terminal 1 of the San Francisco International Airport displays a selection of antique scientific instruments and explores their uses. Dates: September 11, 2021, to April 3, 2022.  The exhibit is accessible to ticketed passengers but non-ticketed guests may get access by emailing curator@flysfo.com.

SFO Museum: Geissler tube rotator [with modern tube]  late 19th century
SFO Museum: Helmholtz resonators  c. 1890

“Museum Airlines” and the pretend airport at a Tel Aviv museum

In Tel Aviv, the Museum of the Jewish People is encouraging visitors to tour the world – virtually of course.

To get the ball rolling, the museum has created “Museum Airlines” and turned the museum into a temporary pretend airport terminal.

The faux terminal has a check-in counter, flight board, baggage claim with luggage, a passport center, currency exchange desk, and a duty-free shop (aka the museum gift shop).

For those who can’t make it the museum in person, the airport has created a 360-degree video of the pretend airport visit that includes a digital quiz.

Access the virtual tour here and look around the airport for 18 country flags.

But first take your seats and listen to the captain.