Museums

Bye-Bye Spruce Goose?

aviation, Aviation history, Museums, , ,

Spruce Goose from outside

If you want to get an up close look at the Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose – or play for a day in a water park built with a Boeing 747 on the roof – now might be a good time to make those plans.

The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum – and Wings and Wave Water Park – may be sold on November 30 in a foreclosure auction in Oregon.

Spruce Goose and others inside the museum

The museum is hoping to delay the sale and has posted this notice on its website:

“We have been notified that our landlord, the Michael King Smith Education Foundation, has received a writ of execution on the sale of both the Space Museum and Wings & Waves Waterpark. The Foundation is a separate entity that owns buildings on the Museum Campus including the Space building, chapel and the Evergreen Wings & Waves Waterpark.

The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is an independent non-profit organization. Museum Management is actively working on solutions to address this situation with the landlord. Visitor count at both the Museum and Waterpark is strong, and the Museum is profitable. We will continue to operate as usual and look forward to welcoming our guests.”

(Photos courtesy of the museum)

Classic football memorabilia at SFO Museum

Museum Monday, Museums, Sports
SFO Football helmet museum

Helmet worn by Leo Nomellini (San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle, 1950-63) c. 1962 Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1969 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame & SFO Museum

More than one million people are expected to attend the week-long festivities in the San Francisco Bay Area leading up to Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

In preparation, the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport is hosting a football-themed exhibition featuring memorabilia and game-worn artifacts from each of the league’s thirty-two franchises, with most items on special loan from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Among the objects on display are items belonging to Hall of Famers – including Joe Montana’s home jersey, Walter Payton’s helmet and Jim Brown’s shoulder pads.

Shoulder pads worn by Jim Brown (Cleveland Browns running back 1957–65) c. 1963 Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1971 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Collection & SFO Museum

Shoulder pads worn by Jim Brown (Cleveland Browns running back 1957–65) c. 1963
Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1971
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Collection & SFO Museum

Look for the exhibit: The Nation’s Game – The NFL from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the Terminal 3 – post-security departures level through February 2016.

Cleats worn by Sam Huff (New York Giants linebacker, 1956–63) during his rookie season 1956 Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1982 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Collection & SFO Museum

Cleats worn by Sam Huff (New York Giants linebacker, 1956–63) during his rookie season 1956
Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 1982
Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Collection & SFO Museum

Pull-tab cars & portraits made of bugs

Museums, , , , ,

Courtesy Fairbanks Museum_Bug Art Mosaic

 

Smithsonian magazine’s 11th Museum Day Live! event is coming back around on Saturday, September 26 and this year there are more than 1300 museums around the country that will be offering free admission on that day.

In my first piece for Mashable Travel, I’ve got a round-up of some of the fun and – of course – offbeat museums and special exhibits to go see that day, including portraits made of thousands of bugs at the eclectic Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, Vermont and the Grassroots Arts Center in Lucas, Kansas, which has outsider art galore.

Courtesy Grassroots Arts Center, Lucas, Kanas_Car and motorcycle made of pop-can pulltabs by Herman Divers

Read the full story here.

And if you’re out and about over the Labor Day Holiday, keep in mind that it is the first weekend of the month and that means Bank of America and Merrill Lynch credit or debit card holders can get free admission to more than 150 museums around the country, courtesy of the long-running Museums on Us program.

Museum Monday: Cancun’s underwater museum

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It’s been far too long since I visited Cancun and the Cancun International Airport , but the news about a fresh set of sculptures being submerged at Cancun’s Underwater Museum of Art (MUSA) puts the area back on top of my “go soon” list.

Since 2010, some 500 sculptures have been submerged in the bottom of the ocean to create a marine life-friendly museum that can be visited only by divers, snorkelers, parasailers and those in glass-bottomed boats.

The sculptures are of everything from life-size humans to a full-size VW Beetle.

Here are two sculptures by Elier Amado Gil that will be submerged during September and October. The first is titled El Entendimiento (Understanding), the second is called Reposo (Rest).

MUSA_ENTENDIMIENTO_

MUSA_Reposo-

California’s regional airlines at SFO Museum

Airports, Museums, ,

SFO MUSEUM CA REGIOAL PSA

There’s yet another great exhibit at San Francisco International Airport,courtesy of the SFO Museum.

This one is all about the California regional airlines that flew between the 1950s and the 1980s.

According to museum notes, although numerous regional airlines existed during the late 1920s, they mostly went bankrupt or merged into larger, trunk-carrier airlines by the time of the Great Depression. But California-based commuter air service resurfaced during the economic boom of the 1950s and 60s, bringing PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) in San Diego, Air California (later AirCal) in Newport Beach, and Pacific Air Lines (later Air West and Hughes Airwest) in San Francisco to compete within the California Corridor with the larger carriers, including TWA (Trans World Airlines), United Air Lines, and Western Air Lines.

The Catch Our Style exhibit is on exhibit at SFO’s Aviation Museum & Library (pre-security, Departures Level 3) and presents the legacy of these California commuter airlines through a collection of flight and ground crew uniforms, inflight service items and equipment, ephemera, and promotional materials.

Here are some images from the exhibit and a link to others.

SFO Museum regional Hughes

Hughes Airwest flight bag and R.O.N. (Remain Over Night) amenity kit 1970s vinyl, metal. Courtesy: SFO Museum –

Hughes Airwest air hostess boots 1970 Designed by Mario Zamparelli, Los Angeles Manufactured by Portrait Clothes, a Division of Barco California plastic, leather. Courtesy SFO Museum

Hughes Airwest air hostess boots 1970. Designed by Mario Zamparelli, Los Angeles. plastic, leather. Courtesy SFO Museum

SFO MUSEUM SEATS

PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) Boeing 727 seats 1970s. plastic, metal, vinyl, polyester . Courtesy SFO Museum

Step on it! Oregon’s World of Speed Museum

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Petersen & Fitz Top Fuel Dragster, nicknamed -The Northwest Terror- after driver Herm Petersen

Petersen & Fitz Top Fuel Dragster, nicknamed -The Northwest Terror- after driver Herm Petersen. Courtesy World of Speed Museum

It’s not just airplanes that go fast…

There’s a new museum for horsepower hounds, speed fiends and fans of NASCAR, the Indianapolis 500 and anything with a motor that goes fast.

Located 15 miles south of Portland, Oregon, in Wilsonville, the World of Speed Museum is home to nearly 100 historic cars and motorcycles, along with race-themed simulators and a land speed record timeline.

A shrine to speed, the 80,000-square-foot museum is the first to document the history of motor sports in the Pacific Northwest. It also covers the story of motorsports that have roots in other parts of the country.

“You can see Nascar cars at the Nascar Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can see Indy cars in Indianapolis, and you can see drag cars at Pomona (California),” said museum curator Ron Huegli. “We’ve got it all under one roof, including two notable hydroplanes on loan from the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum near Seattle.”

U-60 Miss Thirftway Hydroplane Boat and U-1 Miss Budweiser Hydroplane Boat.

U-60 Miss Thriftway Hydroplane Boat and U-1 Miss Budweiser Hydroplane Boat. Courtesy World of Speed Museum

The museum’s Daytona display is a winner: a 15-foot-tall, 44-foot-wide structure built with the exact incline of the original 2.5-mile long tri-oval speedway in Florida.

_World of Speed Interior_NASCAR and Daytona Banking

NASCAR and Daytona Banking. World of Speed Museum

The four restored vehicles mounted in the exhibit are from legendary Nascar drivers, and include Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 2000 Chevy Impala, Jim Vandiver’s 1974 Dodge Charger, Terry Labonte’s 1988 Chevy Monte Carlo and Cale Yarborough’s 1979 Oldsmobile 442.

Other gems on display at the museum (some are on loan, while others are in the permanent collection) include Mickey Thompson’s famous record-breaking Assault and Indianapolis race cars. Both were built by Rolla Vollstedt in the basement shop at his home in Portland.

Rolla Vollstedt Indy Car driven by Len Sutton in the 1965 Indy 500.

Rolla Vollstedt Indy Car driven by Len Sutton in the 1965 Indy 500. World of Speed Museum

“We also have ‘Old Number One’ on display in our showcase salon area,” said Huegli. “It’s a 1929 Bentley built as a race car that took first place at the 24-hour Le Mans race in 1929 and 1930. It’s not something many people have seen beyond looking at it on the Internet.”

1929 Bentley-Old Number One- built as a race car. In 1929, the car took first place at Le Mans with Woolf Barnato and Sir Henry 'Tim' Birkin behind the wheel.

1929 Bentley-Old Number One- built as a race car. In 1929, the car took first place at Le Mans with Woolf Barnato and Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin behind the wheel. World of Speed Museum

In addition to three real race cars set up as simulators (a 1962 Lotus Formula racing simulator, Adrian Fernandez’s 1995 Lola Indy Car and Johnny Benson’s 1998 Nascar Ford Taurus) the museum also has a gallery celebrating classic songs about fast cars including Ike Turner’s “Rocket 88,” The Beach Boys’ “Little Old Lady from Pasadena” and Commander Cody’s classic “Hot Rod Lincoln.”

Gearhead factor aside, there are some broader themes the World of Speed Museum is hoping to drive home.

“Motorsports represent American ingenuity,” said Huegli. “You’re presented with a problem and you solve it in a quest to go faster, which is the whole idea behind racing.”

There’s also the business side of motorsports. Nascar’s top earners pull down more than $170 million in aggregate earnings, endorsements and other income streams, and Nascar itself commands billions from television rights, in spite of faltering viewership.

“It’s huge,” said Huegli. “It’s hard to add it all up, but there are ticket sales at events, the billions of dollars generated by manufacturing related to motorsports, the budgets of all the race teams and the billions of dollars companies spend on sponsorships and advertising related to motorsports racing.”

Add in Formula 1 racing, which had revenue last year of close to $2 billion alone and, said Huegli, “the zeroes just keep adding up.”

(A slightly different version of my story about the World of Speed Museum first appeared on CNBC.)

Art Deco on exhibit at SFO Airport

Airports, Art, Exhibits, Museums, , ,
SFO airplane cocktail shaker

Airplane cocktail shaker, 1930s. Courtesy SFO Museum

 

A new exhibition at San Francisco International Airport displays fashionable and everyday items that evoke the Art Deco era, from works by French sculptors to airline-shaped cocktail shakers and streamlined radios.

SFO Deco radio

Art Deco Bakelite radio, 1930 Courtesy SFO Museum

Need a quick quick recap on Art Deco?

The exhibition notes tell us that this design style popular in the 1920s and ’30s was ‘dynamic and modern’ and exuded ‘glamour, pleasure, and escape,’ drawing inspiration from the mechanized world but also upon historic European styles, ancient and distant cultures, and contemporary avant-garde art. Art Deco permeated all mediums, including fine art, sculpture, architecture, interior design, furnishings, fashion, graphic design and mass-produced goods and we’ve got some great examples here Life and Style in the Age of Art Deco exhibition the SFO Museum has put together at San Francisco International Airport Terminal 3, Boarding Area F (post-security) through August 16, 2015.

SFO deco compacts

Assorted Art Deco compacts and eye shadow containers. Courtesy SFO Museum

 

(All photos courtesy of SFO Museum)

SFO Woman petting gazelle

Woman petting a gazelle c. 1930s Pierre Le Faguays (pseudonym: Fayral. Courtesy SFO Museum

Smithsonian offers eye-level view of Spirit of St. Louis

Aviation history, Baggage, History, Museums, , ,
Spirit of St. Louis Image by Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution

Spirit of St. Louis Image by Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution

The “Spirit of St. Louis” – the plane in which a 26-year-old Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo transatlantic flight in May, 1927 – is one of the most popular artifacts at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

The plane is usually suspended from the gallery ceiling, but for the next five months the plane will be on the floor at eye level while it undergoes preservation work in preparation for an updated exhibition in the museum’s central space, also known as the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall.

The last time the plane was lowered to the gallery floor was in 1992.

Spirit of St. Louis. Image by Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution

Spirit of St. Louis. Image by Mark Avino, Smithsonian Institution

Museum Monday: Egyptian Revival at SFO Airport

Airports, Museum Monday, Museums, ,
SFO MUSEUM EGYPTIAN CIGARETTE CASES

On display at SFO Airport: Egyptian-inspired cigarette packs. Courtesy SFO Museum

The SFO Museum’s newest exhibit at SFO Airport highlights the design style known as Egyptian Revival and features objects ranging from nineteenth-century mantel clocks and ornate Victorian table stands to Art Deco beaded purses and cigarettes and cigarette cases.

SFO MUSEUM Egyptian cigar bands

Cleopatra, the Rosetta Stone and King Tutankahamun’s tomb are just a few reasons why the West has a thing for Ancient Egypt. And, according to the notes for this exhibit, “No other ancient civilization’s art and architecture has captivated the Western world in quite the same manner,” and influenced everything from commercial buildings, movie theaters, films and opera to decorative arts, clothing, mass-produced items, operas, and advertisements.

SFOMuseum Egypt beaded purse

Beaded purse c. 1920s From the collection of Jennifer Whitehair – courtesy SFO Museum

Egyptian Revival: An Everlasting Allure is located pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at San Francisco International Airport and will be on view through July 5, 2015.

Seattle’s Museum of Flight gets a Dreamliner

Aviation history, Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Museums, , , , , ,

It’s still so new – but the 787 Dreamliner is already a museum piece.

On Saturday, Nov. 8, the Boeing Company will officially donate Dreamliner “Number 3” to Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

If you’re in town, you’ll be able to see the plane in the museum’s East Parking Lot all weekend and tour it from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, and all day Sunday, Nov. 9.

The plane will then be relocated and closed to the public from Nov. 10 until the 21st while it gets prepped for permanent exhibition starting Nov. 22.

What’s the big deal about this airplane?

This 787 – ZA003 – was the third Dreamliner built. It first flew on March 14, 2010 and, in addition to its role in the flight test and certification program, Boeing flew this plane to almost two dozen countries to show it off as part of a “Dream Tour.”