On the Calculus of Hanging Ten
With the temperature in the 80s, you might be pondering whether to come to The Huntington this weekend or head straight to the beach instead. If you come to the Library’s West Hall, you’ll be able to catch the exhibition “Blue Sky Metropolis” before it closes on Jan. 9 while also seeing an honest-to-goodness surfboard on display.
How the West Won Me Over
Matthew Hersch, born in New York and educated in Boston and Philadelphia, came west last year to serve as a postdoctoral fellow for the Aerospace History Project and to co-curate the exhibition “Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century in Southern California.”
Over the Moon
Burt and Carol Basney recently came to The Huntington with their daughter’s family and found out in person how their gift from 2007 took center stage in the current exhibition “Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century in Southern California.”
Beyond the Numbers
In the Aerospace History Project, there is what you would expect to find in aerospace collections, such as blueprints and business correspondence documenting the daily work of engineers and scientists, but there are also unexpected items that subvert the stereotypical image.
Defying Gravity
Just four years after the Wright brothers’ famed first flight at Kitty Hawk, a man in the Sierra foothills of California built a contraption that resembled an airplane. His story inspired Ben Rich, the director of Lockheed’s Skunk Works in the 1970s and ’80s.
Blue Skies that Launched an Industry
In an interview on KCRW, Peter Westwick explained how weather played a factor in Southern California’s rise as the center of the aerospace industry in the early 20th century.
