One of the airplanes is the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on. “An experience that has taught me to appreciate the smaller things in life, instead of the finer things in life. The new facility will ultimately display 200 airplanes and 135 spacecraft.
The only way the Enola Gay closure is a tragedy is if we continue to blame it on narrow-mindedness, refuse to take any credit for its demise, and refuse to learn from it. And I think these are some of the most important questions public historians can ask. Acknowledged as the most vehemently disputed episode ever witnessed in the world of museums, it stands as a fearsome cautionary tale that should.
So what can this teach the profession? How can we present accurate history without this sort of backlash? Because of the failure of this exhibition these are the questions our profession has been wrestling with. The Enola Gay was the subject of a controversial exhibition planned for the Smithsonian Institution’s (SI) National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C., the world’s most visited museum. They had an idea it seemed like a good idea and they ran with it. In 1994, preparing for the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the National Air and Space Museum prepared an exhibit that portrayed the. It seems to me, that the curators at the National Air and Space Museum did not do this. Wilson has been encouraging us to think about what kinds of people will view our exhibits and if there is even a need for such an exhibit. The Enola Gay is what happens when public historians lose touch with the public. After a decade of deterioration in open weather, the aircraft was put into storage in 1960. I see this event as a great learning moment for the profession. The Smithsonian Institution acquired the Enola Gay - the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb - forty-four years ago. I would argue that far from being the worst thing that ever happened to this profession, this was a wake up call for the profession.
In 1995, a planned exhibition of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum was cancelled before ever opening due to. The title of his talk was, An Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay. Yes, closure of the exhibition was certainly sad but does it constitute a tragedy? The speaker for the 2085th meeting was Martin Harwit, the former Director of the National Air and Space Museum. In his article, “History and the Culture Wars,” Richard Kohn states that the closure of the Smithsonian’s Enola Gay Exhibition “may constitute the worst tragedy to befall the public presentation of history in the United States…” Did anyone else find this to be an overly dramatic statement?