Think of it as “Antiques Roadshow” for the aerospace set: The Boeing Co. is looking for historical artifacts and memorabilia that will help the company tell the story of its first 100 years in the Puget Sound region.
Your item could go on display at a centennial exhibit due to open at Seattle’s Museum of Flight in May.
“Check your attics, check your basement, check your trophy cases,” Mike Lombardi, Boeing’s corporate historian and archivist, said in a video about the effort. “Find all that Boeing memorabilia, those models, those photographs.”
The company is particularly interested in subjects such as the company’s role in the local community during World War II, the first flights and rollouts of Boeing airplanes, Seafair activities and the 1962 World’s Fair.
Memorabilia relating to the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft, the Apollo era’s lunar rover, the Boeing 247, 707, 747 and the International Space Station would be hot items. But any original photos and artwork, models, pins, badges and buttons are fair game.
If you’ve got some good stuff, you can sign up to bring it in for evaluation by the experts at Boeing and the Museum of Flight. Sessions will be conducted at the museum on March 11 and April 3. Your items won’t be appraised for their cash value, but they will be considered for possible inclusion in the exhibit.
And don’t worry: If your stuff is selected for the exhibit, you’ll get it back after the show winds up in September.
Even if you don’t have artifacts to share, you can share your personal stories for the centennial via this webpage: www.boeing.com/our-stories. You can also sign up for the “Boeing in Washington” newsletter or the Museum of Flight’s biweekly newsletter, and follow the goings-on through the #boeing100 hashtag on Twitter.
