In The Museum: The Secretary’s First Impressions
The Secretary’s first impressions
- By Linda Shiner
- Air & Space magazine, January 2009
On a tour of the National Air and Space Museum, Secretary Wayne Clough (at left) and Director Jack Dailey pause in a gallery showcasing the Wright Flyer.
Eric Long
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“One of the things that surprised me is something everybody else around here takes for granted,” he continued. “It’s the fact that these museums are open every day of the year but Christmas. And you have 24 million people tromping around through these buildings, and that is taking a toll on them. Universities have a toll as well, but we close down for periods between semesters specifically so we can get the buildings back in shape. We don’t have that kind of luxury here. So because we are serving the American people in significant ways, the government has an obligation to support that mission.”
After his stop at the National Air and Space Museum, the new Secretary was headed to a meeting to establish a strategy for the many Smithsonian Institution Web sites. “We need to bring young people into these museums in a much bigger way than we’ve done in the past,” he said. “Some of that we’ll do with
the Web.”
Still, at the Udvar-Hazy Center, he couldn’t help noticing that a lot of high school kids were working as docents and helping to teach other students about the collection. “I think that’s really important,” he said. “A lot of the visitors to our museums are youngsters and they relate to youngsters.”
One of the surprises Clough encountered during his travels around the Smithsonian was at the Udvar-Hazy Center, where he tried his hand at the Wright Model B simulator. He found out that the Model B was a lot harder to fly than it looks; his performance, he said, was not impressive. And another surprise: As he struggled with the controls, the person giving instructions to the one-time university president was a high school student.
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