Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_14623,size=300,left]Born in 1936 in Washington DC, John Robert Edward Kinard would become the first African American director of a Smithsonian museum at the age of 31. Kinard’s circuitous path into museum work took him from development work in Africa to community organizing on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to a dilapidated theater on Nichols Street in DC’s
Description: The National Air and Space Museum was established in 1946 to care for the Smithsonian’s growing aeronautical collections. On July 1, 1976, a new building opened on the National Mall to showcase the collection. In December of 2003, the Udvar-Hazy Center opened near Dulles Airport in Virginia to display additional collections. History of the National Air and Space