Charles Stark Draper Collection

Charles Stark Draper was the leading figure behind the use of inertial navigation in aircraft, spacecraft, ballistic missiles, and submarines. This collection of memorabilia largely relates to Draper's career at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, his contributions to the military, and to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Charles Stark Draper was the leading figure behind the use of inertial navigation in aircraft, spacecraft, ballistic missiles, and submarines. He was born in Windsor, Missouri, in 1901. He earned a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University in 1922. He went on to earn a B.S. in electrochemical engineering and a Ph.D. in physics in 1938 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). One year later, Draper joined the faculty at MIT and helped establish the school's Instrumentation Laboratory. During the next thirty years, he performed research and directed the Instrumentation Laboratory, developing systems such as the gyroscopic shoebox gunsight that led to the derivative Mark 14 gunsight used by U.S. Navy shipboard antiaircraft weaponry in World War II. Draper also developed inertial guidance systems utilized in the Polaris, Poseidon, Trident I and II submarine launched missiles, as well as the Atlas and Titan launch vehicles. During the 1960s, he and the Laboratory created the inertial navigation system employed by the Moon-bound spacecraft of the Apollo program. In 1969, at the height of student protests over military contracts and university research, the politically conservative Draper was asked to step down from his position as director of the Instrumentation Laboratory. Four years after his departure, the Instrumentation Laboratory split away from MIT and formed the non-profit Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. Draper served in the U.S. Air Corps Reserve from 1926 to 1942, resigning as a first lieutenant. Throughout his career, Draper was the recipient of numerous medals, awards, and distinctions, including the National Medal of Science and induction into the Inventor's Hall of Fame. He was also an avid amateur ballroom dancer. For years, he studied and trained with the Arthur Murray Studio. Draper died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1987.