Joan Lunden Behind Closed Doors: Smithsonian Museum

every year more than 30 million visitors come here to the National Mall in Washington DC to visit the museums and galleries known as the Smithsonian Institution but even if you were to visit every museum here you would only see one percent of the 142 million objects in the collection join us as we go behind closed doors insert to the other 99 percent of the Smithsonian treasures think of the Smithsonian as sort of a cross between Noah's Ark and the ultimate time capsule the mission to save and preserve the very essence of our history for study and posterity of the 16 museums that make up the Smithsonian the National Air and Space Museum is the one most visited here you can see the world's most famous flying machines the actual plane that the Wright brothers flew in 1903 the first powered aircraft which ushered in the age of flight Charles Lindbergh's spirit of st. Louis the airplane that conquered the Atlantic in 1927 and from the incredible race to put a man on the moon an Apollo space capsule but because aircraft take up so much room the joke around here is calling it the air and no Space Museum some of the most fascinating relics of the quest for flight remain locked up out of reach of the public visit the Smithsonian's Paul Garber facility in Suitland Maryland these nondescript buildings on Lindbergh Lane give no clue to the treasures hidden inside house behind these closed doors is 80 percent of the Smithsonian's priceless collection of historic air and spacecraft it's a veritable Hall of Fame of veteran aircraft some of them stored without their wings to save space this is a hawker hurricane World War two vintage RAF aircraft these fighting machines are the product of man's obsession with flight and penchant for war a German Fokker the US Navy's Hellcat and this f-86 Sabre jet one of the collections rarest experimental airplanes is this n1 flying wing built by Northrop this aircraft helped develop the design for planes that fly on today's front line and that of course then eventually grew into the stealth over the years they they built several different types of flying wings bombers but today we have to be too stealth bomber and it's an outgrowth of this aircraft it's one thing to store a plane another to restore a plane behind these closed doors 20 dedicated technicians are rebuilding history one bolt at a time this twin engine biplane is a veteran of World War one this is very special this is the Cutrone g4 it's a 1915 vintage French airplane and this is one of only two in the world all of wooden fabric construction and this is actually 1915 fabric how do you find parts when you're looking for parts for a plane it's 100 years old very difficult and in many cases if we can't find one if we can get a drawing or sometimes even a photograph we'll make the part we have a machine shop here we can actually make the part out of a piece of steel for example if it's metal and it will look exactly the way the original did when we're finished restoring an aircraft will typically take five to eight years the Enola Gay which is the b-29 the dropped the first atomic bomb was in this shop for almost ten years that's such a large aircraft that we had part over here part over there and we could only restore it in parts but because of the fact that we're preserving everything as original as possible it takes longer someone say why save all these planes our job is to preserve America's aviation and technology for future generations if we don't save them they won't be here and for the people up to their elbows and airplane parts and axle-grease nothing matches the pride in seeing their aircraft back in shape and on display it's fun to walk down to the museum downtown and watch kids because that's where I started my dad brought me this museum many many years ago and I was just walking around with my head in the air and it's funny then out watch kids doing that today it makes you feel good the Garber facility houses a lot more than just planes because NASA doesn't have the budget for museum storage some space-age artifacts are kept in a special unit behind this closed door oh my gosh you have in their entirety this is amazing this climate-controlled room holds the original spacesuits from NASA's missions to the moon in their natural state they look like they have a little bit a little bit of dirt there Luna dust a lunar dust moon dirt moon dirt genuine mundo these 7-8 suits are all Luna suits over there is Alan Shepards Apollo 14 yeah and then Jack Schmitz Apollo 17 which Jack Schmitt looks like the dirtiest guy he was the geologist and so he was he got himself really dirty yes that's a good thing oh it's a wonderful thing the problem is the suits built to protect astronauts from the vacuum of space weren't built to last the high-tech plastics are breaking down studies are underway looking for ways to slow the decay some say that in 500 years we will still have the Mona Lisa but will no longer have the moon suits I know they've sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars out there and the auctions and things but when you have them here being kept for posterity can you put a price on them oh my goodness they're they're absolutely priceless you can't put a price on on those suits over there when we come back it's the ultimate attic and it houses treasures of the Smithsonian you'll have to see to believe behind closed doors will continue in a moment here on Amy behind closed doors with Joan Lunden continues here on AME the 16 museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution for some of the most priceless items on the planet in the Museum of American history you'll find the real star-spangled banner in the Air and Space Museum hangs the original Wright brother's airplane and in the Museum of Natural History the beautiful and mysterious Hope Diamond hundreds of thousands of objects are added to the Smithsonian collection every year some purchased some donated and some acquired through expeditions but with the museum's already packed to the rafters where do they keep it all six miles from the museums in the suburb of Suitland Maryland is a four and a half acre facility known as the museum Support Center here millions of objects rarely seen by the public are studied preserved and stored think of it as America's attic outside it looks like an ordinary warehouse inside this tightly guarded facility closed to the public are four huge warehouses called pods each one is three stories high and the size of a football field it's a virtual treasure chest of scientific cultural and historical artifacts going behind closed doors into the Anthropology collection in pod number one is like stepping into the ultimate closet organizer with miles of specially designed cabinets look at all the support the handiwork walking with curator bill Fitzhugh I saw endless drawers filled with priceless artifacts from all over the world many of these items may never be seen except by a handful of researchers now this whole area his weapons his paddles all sorts of long difficult to store things hanging on the racks worth thousands of weapons from hundreds of cultures spanning centuries you wouldn't want to be at the end of the guy coming at you with this not only are they you know sharp and deadly but a lot of them are decorated highly decorated yeah look at this one down here with this dragon bezel motif on it here this is a beast headed spear or war knife from Japan and we have almost identical pieces like that as Eskimo harpoons maybe there was some kind of connection there between the Eskimos and Jack well we don't know what the answer is there something there so that's how these collections can be useful this samurai armor that protected warriors in battle hundreds of years ago now needs protection itself if it's to survive the ravages of time support systems are custom designed for every object that's what this apparatus is is for so that we can actually see them as they were worn and they don't strain the materials the leather is not hanging on something and causing it to crack and break keeping it alive so to speak over we've done okay for a hundred and fifty years a lot of people would look at all this and say really interesting but why why save it all things are the the basic commodities of human culture so we have to save those as many as we can but we do not save everything I mean the Smithsonian you know could be come the trash bucket of the United States and the rest of the world keeping track of the millions of artifacts is a daunting task when the museum was started a hundred and fifty years ago items were painstakingly entered and drawn by hand into these Ledger's then came the old card catalog system today every object is entered into a massive computer database if we had photographs of this item that's what we would entry but history is a messy business artifacts arrive at the Smithsonian in their original condition dirty or damaged these things don't come in you know clean with exactly so before they go here they are fixed up here in the conservation lab oh this is gorgeous it's a shame it's in such bad shape artifacts of all kinds are cleaned examined and prepared for storage or exhibition but it's not only treasures from around the world that are housed here American history curator David shape unlocked cabinets filled with pieces of Americana the things that are here some people might say I have one of those in my attic they probably do in fact but what we try to do is not represent just people's attics but the nation's history these are very valuable oh really yes yes folk art weather vanes aren't great the Smithsonian collections include some things you'd never expect to find in a museum everything from Archie Bunker's chair to Fonzie's jacket the stuff of pop culture that may someday define a generation is stashed away for safekeeping these are the glasses worn by Dustin Hoffman when he portrayed a female work let's see yes Dustin Hoffman personally donated these to the Smithsonian this signature black string tie worn by Colonel Sanders himself came here courtesy of KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken and these little latex items they're the ears worn by Leonard Nimoy when he played mr. Spock on Star Trek they were given to the Smithsonian by a Trekkie what if there is another avid collector out there like this Trekkie fan that brought you the ears should they call you yes don't be shy we welcome inquiries ideas for exhibition certainly for new collections just down the hall from the American history collection is pod number two walking into the lock double doors here is frankly a bit eerie in here is the mammals collection it includes some 580 thousand specimens of every shape and size Linda Gordon is the one in charge of this boneyard these are pigs of different species we are passing some warthogs now these are wild pigs from Indonesia among the wide assortment of bones there are 34 elephant skulls including one brought in by a presidential collector I've just happened to look at the tag and I saw the name Roosevelt that's true Teddy Roosevelt happened to be the collector of this skull he was on an expedition in 1909 to 1911 called the Smithsonian African expedition it took place in East Africa and he and others collected all kinds of mammals for our collection the oversized objects are stored in what they call the high bay the huge racks of shelving make it look like the home depot of history I was amazed to see everything from dugout canoes to giant statues meteorites hand-carved totem poles and massive animals preserve for the ages but even these big brutes were tame compared to what I'd faced next pod number three holds the wet collection hundreds of thousands of biological specimens stored in bottles jars and tanks of all sizes in here you'll find everything from algae to alligators why keep all this when just a handful of items will ever be seen by the public some sponges a sponge right right biologist Brian kenzley explained that this collection also plays an important role in the search for the causes and cures of diseases the National Cancer Institute deposits sponges here they go around exploring in the oceans and collect these animals extract chemicals from them and then test them for anti-cancer drugs now I was ok with sponges in a sealed jar but when it came to this well-preserved Giant Pacific octopus things got just a little too slimy for me is it squishy it's not too squishy actually I didn't touch it yeah it's squishy I can't tell alive the sheer number of artifacts in the Smithsonian's collections was mind-boggling my visit to the facilities the public doesn't see gave me an appreciation for the extraordinary care they take in preserving and safeguarding our nation's treasures behind closed doors of the Smithsonian Institution I'd like to extend my personal thanks to all those who helped us gain unprecedented access to make this show possible join us next time is once again we go behind closed doors for Annie I'm Joan Lunden

Channel: JoanLunden

Views: 20,158

Rating: 4.8064518 out of 5

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Id: 652S9MmwF3c

Length: 17min 34sec (1054 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 15 2016