New Exhibits
Air Guardsman Gallagher
I created three displays during my internship. On my first day I set up a brand new exhibit to remember a local Air Guardsman who was killed during his time in service. His family had donated a box with his training school yearbooks, hat, certificate from the governor, name badges, photos, folded flag, and memorial poem to honor his memory. I arranged the items in a case we set up especially for this exhibit. It was a lot of trial and error for my first time — testing what looked good and what would stand up in the case. I liked doing this exhibit particularly because it had a lot of physical items to work with as opposed to many which solely utilize newspaper clippings and photos. A few days after I finished the exhibit, a family member came by to see it. I was happy I could give him a place to honor his relative.
Powder Puff Racing
The second day I updated our Women in Flight exhibit. Previously it was a glass cabinet full of books about female aviators but all you could do was look at the cover. I changed it out to feature a team of women from Sioux City who raced Powder Puff planes in the 70s. I used newspaper clippings, photos, trophies, flight records, applications, and their emergency survival kit to create a more vibrant, interesting, and relevant exhibit about local women in aviation. Now that’s my favorite display because I made It and it shows the capability of women in the cockpit, especially to any aspiring female pilots who visit.
Heroic Prisoner of War
I made a few additions to our Vietnam War section, including a frame dedicated to Harold Monlux, a fighter pilot from Sioux City shot down on his first mission who was Prisoner of War with John McCain and Bud Day (also from Sioux City). I arranged photos of him, newspaper clippings, and letters from his family in a large poster frame to share his story.
Weather Bureau
Although we will eventually be donating the meteorological records that the museum holds to another institution, we wanted to keep a piece of them here for the community to remember the station in Sioux City. I sifted through all the newspaper articles and publications stuck in the pages of the weather books, organized them, and set aside what I thought best represented the bureau. I arranged these articles and photos in a couple poster frames that we can keep on permanent display at our museum once the books go away.
Miscellaneous Additions
In the Vietnam War section, I added a few items we received in a donation box. The helmet on top was from a marine pilot and the books on the lower shelf were tech school yearbooks from that pilot.
In the Flight 232 exhibit, I suggested the addition of a newspaper article I found. The blouse pictured was worn by one of the flight attendants during the crash and was recently donated to the museum. The article mentions the blouse in the first few sentences so I though it was a perfect tie-in.
These snippets of text and images were already printed out to help explain the "Kilroy was here" design on this tank. I arranged and attached the papers to foam core and made the addition to the display. It was a simple task that gave much more meaning to the vehicle.
I framed and hung this poster above our drinking fountains. I thought it was the perfect fit because the yokes line up with the two fountains. The photo is from a unique perspective so it feels like you’re in the cockpit when you go to take a drink — something the kids love. I also framed and suggested a place to hang this cockpit photo above the door.
When digging through posters and supplementary materials, I found this timeline of commercial aviation. I hung it in our United Airlines exhibit by our big 727. I later realized there was the same poster in our other commercial flight exhibit but they are far apart and it never hurts to have double information!
We decided to add this framed A-7 cockpit poster next to this thick window because it is the center pane of the windshield pictured in the drawing. I included sticky notes to describe this relation so now the poster gives great context for the object which would not have much meaning otherwise.
