80,000 Ways to Search the Archive Plumbing the secrets of the Museum’s Tech Files.
PeterK
he information explosion came early to the National Air and Space Museum, which houses more than 17,000 cubic feet of material documenting its collection of artifacts. But until recently, a major portion of the archive was available only to those who could visit in person.
If a researcher wanted information about the flamboyant, flying-obsessed 1920s socialite Mabel Boll, aka the Queen of Diamonds, she would look at the bound index in the archives and hope to find a typed listing under “Biographies; Individuals.” Someone looking for details about the Cactus Kitten, a monoplane-turned-triplane, would have to already know the aircraft was a Curtiss-Cox racer before asking to see the “Aircraft, Curtiss” file. And if you were interested in popular theories on how space travel would affect humans as a species? You’d need an archivist to direct you to the “Social Impact; Space History” files, where you could read Waldemar Kaempffert’s ideas about transforming bipedal humanity into quadrupeds to better scamper around Venus.
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