Alexander Graham Bell instructed him on the finer points of kite flying. Charles Lindbergh entrusted him with the Spirit of St. Louis. Jennings Randolph, senator from West Virginia, responded to his pleas for a suitable facility for the national aeronautical collection, and the National Air Museum was created.
He has been called the grand patriarch of American flight, a world-class airplane connoisseur, and the soul of aviation history. He calls himself the “oldest museum specimen in the Smithsonian Institution, except for the pterodactyls!” He is Paul Edward Garber, historian emeritus and Ramsey Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum and, for almost 50 years, an outstanding curator of aircraft.
Paul Garber was fortunate to be at the top of his profession during the most exciting, romantic period in aviation history—the period between the wars when air racing, record breaking, and aerial exploration made daily headlines, and aviators and their aircraft became famous overnight. It was the golden age of aviation, and Paul Garber took advantage of all the means at his disposal to build the finest aircraft collection in the world.
When Garber signed on at the National Museum as a “preparator” in 1920, he already loved aviation and all of its people, aircraft, sights, and sounds. One of his earliest associations with flight, back in 1904, took the form of kite flying. A later chance encounter with the great inventor Alexander Graham Bell— and Bell’s ensuing discourse on some of the intricacies of kite design—made a lasting impression on young Garber and fueled what would become a lifelong obsession with kites.
Another early experience, a visit to nearby Fort Myer, Virginia, in 1909 at the age of ten, had a profound effect on the youngster. There, he witnessed a demonstration flight of the U.S. Army’s first airplane, with Orville Wright at the controls. The scene “established my perpetual fascination for flight,” Garber recalls.
The fascination grew and, a few days short of his 16th birthday, Garber soloed in a large, 18-foot wingspan, self-made glider based on an 1896 Octave Chanute. With assistance and considerable encouragement from fellow Capital Model Aero Club members, Paul made a dozen free flights, the longest of which was about 400 feet and gained 100 feet in height. For Paul Garber, it was a landmark that qualified him for membership in a distinguished fraternity, the Early Birds of Aviation, composed of pilots who soloed before 17 December 1916.
While serving in the Army during World War I, Garber received some ground and flight instruction, which sustained his interest in airplanes and made him even more determined to pursue a career in aviation. The Postal Air Mail Service beckoned in 1919, and Paul joined as a ground crewman at College Park, Maryland. Between his regular duties, he was able to cadge rides in a two- seater Curtiss JN-4D and continue his flight instruction, soloing in 1919.
Garber left the Air Mail Service a few months later to join the National Museum—beginning an association with the Smithsonian Institution that has lasted more than 70 years.
His first job at the Smithsonian was as “preparator” in the Division of Mechanical Technology, where he prepared and repaired exhibits. He still managed to find time for initiating projects involving aviation—constructing aircraft models for display, and acquiring an occasional aeronautical artifact here and there for the collection. In 1932, when a Section of Aeronautics was established, he was placed in charge. As Garber grew in his job, his circle of friends and associates in the aviation world also expanded. A casual examination of a ledger from those early days gives a small insight into his life in the 1920s.
►“Enjoyed a flight with Walter Hinton (NC-4 pilot) in a Curtiss flying boat equipped with an Olmsted propeller.”
►“Met Captain P. V. Weems and received examples of instrument he had developed for the Navy.”
►“Grover Loening developed an amphibian biplane of the type used by Lieutenant Commander Richard Byrd for Arctic mapping. Later obtained an historic example for the Museum.”
►“I attended the National Air Races of 1925, held at Mitchel Field, Long Island. There I met Glenn Curtiss, often named ‘father of naval aviation.’ Mr. Curtiss was seated in a restored Curtiss pusher, a type he had flown in 1909-1912. 1 asked Mr. Curtiss if he would give this pusher to the Museum. After some consideration, he agreed.”
► “During visits to the Naval Air Station in Anacostia, I met A1 Williams, C. C. Champion, and Apollo Soucek. Later, with cooperation from Major Williams, we obtained his Curtiss Gulfhawk I and Grumman Gulfhawk II. From Lieutenant Soucek, I received the high altitude clothing he had worn when making a world’s altitude record in a Wright Apache, 4 June 1930, of 43,166 feet.”
It is impossible to chronicle all of Garber’s accomplishments, but a few notable examples illustrate the unique style and foresight he brought to his job.
The Curtiss NC-4
Paul Garber first glimpsed the NC flying boat while working with the Postal Air Mail Service. During a trip to New York, he borrowed a motorcycle, drove to Rockaway, Long Island, and saw the four Navy aircraft being prepared for their 1919 attempt to cross the Atlantic. His fascination with the plane lasted, and he devoted a fair part of his curatorial life to saving the NC-4 from the junk heap.
With the continuing cooperation and assistance of the U.S. Navy, he succeeded in bringing the aircraft to the National Air Museum, where it finally was restored. The effort took five decades, and its happy ending was largely the result of Garber’s persistence and tenacity.
He prodded, cajoled, and hounded every Secretary of the Smithsonian and Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics to find a proper resting place for the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic. Today, the NC-4 resides in the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida, on temporary loan from the Smithsonian.
The Spirit of St. Louis
On 20 May 1927, Paul Garber heard of Charles Lindbergh’s departure from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, over the radio. “I felt in my bones Lindbergh would make it and that he and his airplane would be famous. I decided right then that the Smithsonian ought to have his airplane,” Garber recalls. He drafted a telegram congratulating Lindbergh on his successful flight and laying the groundwork for acquiring the Spirit of St. Louis. He convinced a reluctant Charles Abbot, Secretary of the Smithsonian, that Lindbergh, “being a superior air mail pilot,” was going to make it.
Abbot eventually sent the telegram, and Garber’s intuition and persistence paid off. After his well-publicized tour of the United States and Central and South America with the Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh flew the airplane to Bolling Field, near Washington, and delivered it to Garber and the Smithsonian on 30 April 1928. The friendship between Garber and Lindbergh that began with the historic flight continued over the years.
Today, the Spirit of St. Louis hangs in a place of honor in the Milestones of Flight Gallery in the National Air and Space Museum. Nearby hangs the centerpiece of the gallery, one of the most revered aircraft of all time—the Wright 1903 Flyer. As one might expect, Garber played a key role in its acquisition.
The Wright Flyer
In 1928, the Wright Flyer was loaned to the British Science Museum in London because of a disagreement between Orville Wright and Smithsonian authorities. In 1948, the controversy was resolved, and the Flyer was placed aboard the steamship Mauritania, bound for New York. Garber was to escort the aircraft after its arrival in the United States, but a dock strike in New York City forced the Mauritania, with her precious cargo, to divert to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The resourceful Garber also diverted to Halifax, got the three crates crammed full of Wright Flyer offloaded onto the pier, and pondered his dilemma. Ground transportation had been arranged—but from New York. He was stranded “ . . . without even a wheelbarrow.”
Undaunted, Garber telephoned his old friend Rear Admiral Mel Pride in Washington, D.C., and asked for a Navy ship to bail him out. After due deliberation, Admiral Pride told Garber the escort carrier Palau (CVE-122) would come, sooner or later, to make the pickup. From morning until dusk, every day, Garber sat on the wharf with the boxes hard by, looking out to sea for his ship. Finally, after days of waiting, on 14 November 1948, the Palau entered port. Garber and the Wright Flyer were loaded aboard and taken to Bayonne, New Jersey, then by truck to Washington, where they were greeted with proper ceremony by U.S. and British officials.
World War II
Paul Garber’s many years of experience as a curator prepared him well for the important role he was to play during World War II. The morning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Garber was asked by Commander Luis de Flores to provide the Navy Department with an exhibit of war planes previously prepared for display in the Smithsonian. This was done, and, within a week, Garber was in the office of Rear Admiral John Towers, chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, discussing the need to provide models of enemy aircraft to all Navy commands for recognition training. It was not long before Lieutenant Paul Garber, U.S. Naval Reserve, said farewell to the Smithsonian and found himself assigned to the Bureau of Aeronautics, working for Commander de Flores in the Special Devices Division model shop.
Garber became involved in scores of projects using various types of models and simulators for training personnel. He became preoccupied with gunnery instruction and how best to solve the problems of hitting a moving target. His kite-flying background served him well— eventually leading him to construct a target kite, for shipboard use in training antiaircraft gunners. With the help of some ladies in the navy yard’s sail loft, the first experimental batch of target kites was constructed, then taken by Garber to Portsmouth for delivery to the USS York- town (CV-10). The rest is history.
More than 300,000 kites were manufactured by the end of the war. So effective were these and other training aids produced by the Special Devices Division that the Navy and Admiral de Flores were awarded the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy in 1943.
Paul Garber returned to the Smithsonian in 1946. On 12 August 1946, President Harry Truman signed the law creating the National Air Museum as a separate bureau of the Smithsonian, and Garber was selected as its first curator. His first important task, of almost overwhelming proportion, was to find a home for the scores of military aircraft that had been earmarked for the national aeronautical collection by the Navy and the Air Force.
After a fruitless search for covered warehouse storage, Garber commandeered a J-3 Cub and an oversize map and did an aerial survey of nearby Maryland. He discovered 21 acres in the Silver Hill area, which were eventually allotted to the Smithsonian. Bulldozers and engineers were scrounged from the Army at Fort Belvoir, the land was cleared and . . had space for buildings and roads. We named one Randolph Road for Jennings Randolph, and the other Arnold Avenue for General Hap Arnold. Garber’s Gulch was the swamp down at the end.” With Garber’s patience and ingenuity and the cooperation of many, many sources, Silver Hill was under way. In 1980, the Silver Hill Museum was renamed the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility, a place where part of the Garber legacy—more than 160 aircraft as well as numerous spacecraft, engines, propellers, and other flight-related objects—can be viewed by an enthusiastic public.
Although Paul Garber officially retired from civil service in 1969, he still works at the National Air and Space Museum five full days a week. He is a Ramsey Fellow, a position created by a bequest from the late Admiral and Mrs. DeWitt Clinton Ramsey for “. . . the increase and diffusion of knowledge pertaining to the United States naval flight history and expansion.” Garber is writing his autobiography, or “aero-biography” as he calls it, and continues to welcome visitors of all ages who come to hear his stories about airplanes, aviators, kites, and models.
While the walls of his small office are crowded with reminders of the countless awards and honors that have been bestowed upon him over the last 70-plus years, Garber is most proud of an award presented to him on 26 March 1985 by Vice Admiral Edward H. Martin. Paul Garber became Honorary Naval Aviator No. 16, joining such illustrious company as Admiral Arleigh Burke, General James Doolittle, and Admiral Hyman Rickover.
It may be impossible to have another Paul Garber in today’s world. There are no more Jimmie Doolittles, Charles Lindberghs, Wiley Posts, or Amelia Earharts. Airplanes with romantic names, such as the Spirit of St. Louis, Polar Star, and Glamorous Glennis, are rare; there are few records left to set, and no new oceans to cross or continents to discover. An occasional Voyager may appear to catch the public’s fancy for a while, but, for all intents and purposes, the “golden age of curators” is over.
On his 90th birthday, Paul Garber received a congratulatory letter from President George Bush, in which the President put the life and times of Paul Garber in proper perspective:
“During your lifetime, man’s great dream of flying has become an everyday occurrence. During the past nine decades, men and women in aviation have woven an epic saga of flight that has captured the imagination of the world. These pioneers took to the air in machines that we now view with awe as the most tangible legacy of their achievements. You have helped to preserve that great legacy for future generations by building the Smithsonian’s collection of historic aircraft, and all of us are infinitely richer for your efforts.”