American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Photo Album

This collection consists a photo album containing black and white photographs of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) library, archives, and museum.

The Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) was established in 1933 and the organization's first secretary, Lester D. Gardner, immediately began collecting aeronautical artifacts for a museum. These artifacts were primarily displayed in offices until 1945 when the museum collection was displayed in a dedicated but limited space in the organization's library and archives. In 1959, space was expanded in the library for technology information, and the majority of the museum's artifacts were kept in storage. Many of these artifacts later became part of the national collection at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) through the efforts of Paul Garber, former NASM Head Curator and Senior Historian and later Assistant Director of Aeronautics. The Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) went through several organizational changes over the years. The group changed its name to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in 1960. Because of the changing nature of propulsion technology into missile, rocket, and space technology, in 1963 AIAA merged with the American Rocket Society (formerly known as the American Interplanetary Society (AIS)), which had been created in 1930.