Newspaper – Florida Times, July 9, 2019 Meet Hazel Banks, a clerk and stenographer who worked for NASA on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs up through Apollo 15. Banks started at NASA in 1965 in the procurement department working on contracts before moving to the flight training building at Kennedy Space Center to work… Continue reading
Victrola Phonograph Record – “A Perfect Day” by Carrie-Jacobs Bond, 1914 Do you know who the first female music publisher was? Her name was Carrie Jacobs-Bond, a singer, songwriter, and pianist who formed her own publishing company in 1896 after the male-dominated music industry refused to publish her compositions. She became hugely popular worldwide, and… Continue reading
Wonder Woman Lunchbox ca. 2000 Today is International Woman’s Day and we are honoring Wonder Woman, an icon and inspiration for more than 75 years. Although not flesh and blood, she has had a lasting and positive impact on our culture, the women’s movement, and science fiction. She empowers women to be both strong and… Continue reading
Postage Stamp – First Day of Issue, 1993 This week in honor of Black History Month, we are celebrating research chemist Percy Lavon Julian. Part of the Black Heritage series, the US Postal Service issued this stamp to honor his pioneering work synthesizing medical compounds from plants. He developed cortisone for arthritis, a drug to… Continue reading
Action Figure – 1988 This week in honor of Black History Month, we are highlighting this action figure in the Bronze Bombers series produced by Olmec. Specializing in African American themed toys, Olmec Corporation first released this line of military figures in 1988. Inspired by the all-black units in World War I and II, the… Continue reading
Color Lithograph – NASA, 2016 In honor of Black History Month, we are highlighting artifacts like this lithograph produced by NASA featuring women of color in aviation and space history. Portraits of these women pioneers and innovators who have been, or are currently, in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics illustrate the important roles these… Continue reading
Cottontail Rabbit, Sylvilagus audubonii January 22nd was the official start of the Chinese New Year in 2023, marking the end of winter and beginning of the spring season. Each year, an animal from the Chinese zodiac is assigned in a repeating twelve-year cycle based on the traditional Chinese lunar calendar. 2023 is the Year of… Continue reading
Black Bear, Ursus americanus Today is #MuseumSelfieDay! Our Collections Manager snapped a pic with Shadow, the Science Center’s American black bear, to celebrate. Did you know that black bears live in 40 of the US states? An estimated 100,000 of these omnivores live in Alaska where Shadow called home. Found only in North America, approximately 800,000… Continue reading
Bird of Paradise Hat, ca. 1890-1910s At the turn of the 20th century, ladies in the US and Europe went wild over hats, and not just any hats, hats with feathers and whole taxidermied birds on them! The beautiful birds of paradise, like the one adorning this hat, were most desirable because of their brilliant… Continue reading
American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos Have you ever seen a white crow? Most of us think that crows are black, which is true, however some of them have problems with pigment disposition and show white in their plumage. A rare number of crows are all white, like this one, because of a gene mutation called albinism.… Continue reading
