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Today in Smithsonian History: June 2, 1980

Paul E. Garber(1899 – 1992) poses in front of the Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, soon after the new National Air and Space Museum (National Mall building) opened in 1976.
Photographer unknown, as featured in National Air and Space Museum: An Autobiography

June 2, 1980 The National Air and Space Museum’s Silver Hill Facility in Maryland is named the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in honor of Paul Edward Garber, (1899-1992) who was instrumental in collecting more than half of the 352 Smithsonian-owned aircraft. Garber fell under the spell of both aviation and the Smithsonian while growing up in Washington, D.C. As a 10-year-old, he took a streetcar across the Potomac to watch Orville Wright fly the world’s first military airplane at Fort Myer, Va. Alexander Graham Bell, a Smithsonian regent, taught young Paul how to bridle his kite. At the age of 15, Garber built a full-scale biplane glider based on a model he had seen at the Smithsonian.

In 1920, he began working at the Institution, building models and preparing exhibitions. For the next 72 years he dedicated himself to the preservation of the nation’s aeronautical heritage and to sharing his boundless enthusiasm for flight with Smithsonian visitors. He played a key role in the creation of the National Air Museum in 1946, and was indispensable in the effort to construct the present National Air and Space Museum building, which opened in 1976. Most important, Garber, as first curator and devotee, helped to assemble the most impressive collection of historic aircraft in the world for the Smithsonian.

Learn more from Air and Space magazine >>

During World War II, Navy Commander Paul Garber developed a target kite (bearing the silhouette of a Japanese aircraft) for U.S. Navy ship-to-air gunnery practice.