One has to believe he would have become an aviator himself if he could have. Instead he became an authority on aviation and an expert museum curator. After 45 years of service he retired from the Smithsonian and began work on a definitive history of the institution. Initially it was going to be one book.
Crouch could not condense it into one volume. He just published the first installment; “Smithson’s Gamble - the Smithsonian Institution in American Life, 1836-1906.” This book delves into the origin story and traces the careers of the first three men who guided the Smithsonian.
But first there was the legacy. A man named James Smithson, an Englishman, provided the seed money, the endowment that funded this endeavor. It almost didn’t happen. Initially he gave his money to a nephew under the condition that if his designated heir failed to produce any children that upon his death the funds would transfer to the Americans.
The nephew died young so half a million dollars went to the USA instead. They had to decide how to fulfill the bequest. The first secretary of what became the Smithsonian, Joseph Henry, was a micromanager who didn’t want a library or even a museum, he didn’t even want a fancy building. Although they built one. Fortunately he was frugal and he hired well.
He found an assistant, Spencer Baird, who eventually became his successor. According to Crouch it was Baird who was the visionary who transformed it into what it became, an incredible museum with fantastic collections that were being assembled under Baird’s guidance. All those dinosaur bones and everything else, accumulated in massive quantities.
The third secretary, Samuel Langley, was someone the author had been studying for many years. Langley was an astronomer who hoped to master powered flight. He designed a flying machine that splatted unceremoniously into the Potomac River. Twice. This book is a smorgasbord of amazing, I daresay incredible stories.
Crouch is now working on the second volume which will cover the years 1907-1976. It will end the year they opened the Air and Space Museum. And he is currently collaborating with a co-author on this one. Crouch is 81 years old. That book won’t write itself!
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
About the Author