The controversy over how the Enola Gay should represent history gradually becomes history itself. The centerpiece of the exhibit was the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped Little. Only the fuselage was on display, accompanied by basic facts and information about the plane's restoration. Unlike the cancelled exhibition, ' Enola Gay ' contained no interpretation, no graphic images, and no melted objects. Retrospects and reflections on the controversy following the opening of the new exhibit. The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. On June 28, 1995, an exhibition, simply titled ' Enola Gay ,' opened at the National Air and Space Museum.
In 1994, for example, the Museum planned to exhibit the Enola Gay. In the period before the new exhibit opens, the group of historians calls for national teach-ins in protest, Smithsonian damage control includes a conference on museums in a democratic society at the University of Michigan, and Martin Harwit resigns just before two days of hearings begin in the Senate. The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum. Organized opposition, now public - including the American Legion, members of Congress, and World War II veterans of all stripes - to the direction of the Smithsonian exhibit mounts, forcing several more drafts, none of which satisfies the critics.Ī group of historians vigorously defend the museum, but a dispute over the number of lives saved by dropping the bomb dooms negotiations for an exhibit acceptable to the critics, and new Smithsonian Secretary Michael Heyman admits the museum made a mistake, cancels the exhibit, and plans a new, uncontroversial one. The Smithsonian proposal to mark this important anniversary as a "crossroads" - consonant with a new Smithsonian philosophy of museumship by Secretary Robert McCormick Adams and NASM Director Martin Harwit - is unsuccessfully questioned privately by the Air Force Association, led by John T. In the 1980s, the National Air and Space Museum veered away from its mission to collect, preserve, and display aviation and space artifacts. By then, new political winds were blowing at the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution, skirting controversy that in 1995 enveloped its display of Enola Gay at National Air and Space Museum, adopts minimalist approach in displaying plane in new setting at.
Experience the evolution of the Enola Gay controversy by reading through a chronological list of documents divided into five rounds: Restoration of Enola Gay finally be-gan in December 1984 and plans to dis-play it, or part of it, followed in 1987. The exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II featuring the refurbished B-29 Enola Gay proposed by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum resulted in fierce controversy over how history should represent dropping an atom bomb on Japan.