"Winnie Mae" Airplane on Exhibit in A & I Building

Summary

Exhibited in the Arts and Industries Building is the "Winnie Mae" airplane, a single-winged 7-passenger plane, suspended from the ceiling above exhibit cases holding coins from the Numismatics Exhibit. Smithsonian National Gallery of Art paintings are on the walls. The "Winnie Mae", a special Lockheed Model 5C Vega flown by famed aviator Wiley Post, who completed two around-the-world record flights and a series of special high-altitude substratospheric research flights. The original owner, F.C. Hall, purchased the plane in June 1930 and named the plane after his daughter. Hall hired Post to pilot the plane and his admiration for Post manifested itself in the gift of the "Winnie Mae" to Post. The plane was purchased by the Smithsonian Institution in 1936 from Post's widow and deposited in the museum. The plane is now part of the National Air and Space Museum collection.

Subject

• Post, Wiley
• Winnie Mae (Airplane)
• Arts and Industries Building
• National Gallery of Art of the Smithsonian
• Smithsonian Gallery of Art
• National Air and Space Museum
• United States National Museum

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

• Image Number SIA2010-3082, found in Record Unit 549, is a black and white print. It is a wide shot of the "Winnie Mae" and has a label on the bottom right corner pinned on it that reads: WINNIE MAE 32291-B - Aircraft - Garber.
• The original negative for this image is Image Number 32291-B. Other photos of the Winnie Mae include Image Number SIA2011-1332 and 91-3702, which are a black and white photographic prints, cropped versions of this image without a label in the bottom right corner. Image Number SIA2011-1331 is a colored and slightly cropped version of this image.
• For a different image of the plane, see Image Number SIA2011-0185.

Contained within

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 549, Box 2, Folder 21

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1940

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

• Airplanes
• Money
• Artifacts
• Coins
• Exhibit cases
• Aeronautics
• Exhibitions
• Portraits
• Numismatics
• Lockheed Model 5C Vega
• Painting

Form/Genre

• Photographic print
• Exhibit
• Interior

ID Number

SIA2010-3082

Physical description

Number of Images: 1 Color: Black and white; Size: 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Exhibit; Interior; Medium: Photographic print

Full Record

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