Archives Division
Bio
Melissa A. N. Keiser is chief photo archivist for the National Air and Space Museum Archives. She joined the museum in 1985 as a copy photographer on the Museum’s archival videodisc project; 30 years later she cares for more than 2 million images—one of the Smithsonian’s largest collections of photography. She has used her image research talents in support of numerous Museum publications and projects, including the exhibitions America By Air (open 2007) and Pioneers of Flight (open 2010) and the books The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Book of Flight (2001), The Best of the National Air and Space Museum (2006), and Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: An Autobiography (2010). She is co-author of The Legacy of Flight: Images from the Archives of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (2010). Her subject specialties include early American aviation photographers, pre-World War I French aviation, and aircraft nose art.
