Destination Moon: Conserving Apollo Era Artifacts for Display

Rachel Greenberg, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Abstract:
Many of the NASA artifacts created during the Apollo Era now reside in the collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) and have recently gone through the process of being prepared for a new exhibition. NASM underwent a multi-year project to renovate all 23 galleries, as well as the building itself, allowing for every object in the museum to be deinstalled, thoroughly examined, documented, and treated. Apollo to the Moon was the first gallery to close to the public as part of the Transformation Project in December 2018, with plans to reopen as the newly designed Destination Moon Gallery. While the design for the new gallery had already been completed, it was not until each object was examined that a full understanding of its condition and display requirements could be determined. This necessitated close communication and collaboration with curators, designers, and exhibition specialists to properly conserve each object keeping within a tight deadline and to establish the ideal display methods for maintaining their preservation.

The case studies in this presentation will discuss the issues and challenges in caring for such a specialized collection of unusual materials found in Apollo Era artifacts, as well as highlight the complex processes and decision making involved in preparing these unusual objects for exhibition. These include an engineering model of a spacecraft that laid the groundwork for the Apollo missions, a control simulator used for astronaut training, and development versions of a spacesuit and helmet that would be used by astronauts in space. These historically significant artifacts have been on display at one of the world’s most visited museums for decades, and with the help of conservation, will be displayed for the public to enjoy for decades to come.

Bio: Rachel Greenberg holds an M.A. in Classical Art and Archaeology from University College London and an M.Sc. in Conservation for Archaeology and Museums, also from UCL.  Rachel has worked as an objects conservator at the Çatalhöyük (pronounced Chataal Huyuk) Research Project Excavation in Turkey, the British Museum in London, and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.  She started at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in 2015, working on the Conservation Triage Project to stabilize objects moving into permanent storage. She has been part of the Transformation Project since 2017, preparing a wide range of objects for display in the renovated exhibition spaces. Rachel is a Professional Associate of the American Institute of Conservation (AIC) and serves as the President for the Washington Conservation Guild, a local educational forum for conservators in Washington, DC.