Vol. 38, No. 18

2-15-2007
By: Adam King

Exhibit a 'hidden treasure' at OSU

Sen. John Glenn’s uniqueness as a decorated military aviator and the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth has helped turn Page Hall into a miniature air and space museum.

In fact, the John Glenn Archives, which features his legislative papers and memorabilia not found elsewhere, will have more on public view starting Feb. 20 to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Glenn’s 1962 Friendship 7 space flight.

The 45-day temporary exhibit will feature a plug from the spacecraft’s heat shield, a cross-section of umbilical cable that connected the capsule to the launch pad and samples of the more than 300,000 letters Glenn received from people worldwide after his historic tri-orbital flight.

Jeff Thomas, John Glenn archivist with OSU Libraries, said the Page Hall exhibits help illustrate the former senator’s life story.

“You get an understanding of the motive that drove him, which is one person can make a difference in public service,” Thomas said.

Glenn gave his 2,100 boxes of papers and memorabilia to Ohio State because he wanted to start a school focused on public policy at an institution known for its research prowess.

On the third floor next to the Lounge Library, one can find the manual hand controller from Friendship 7 and the failed thruster that forced Glenn to manually control the capsule’s trajectory during his final two orbits.

“The control handle, which was key to my getting back because the automatic system failed, that’s one of my most prized possessions,” Glenn said.

The library itself is a comfortable reading area with a fireplace, and it showcases the chair Glenn, now 85, used during his 24 years on the Senate floor as well as a plaster casting depicting the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima’s Mt. Suribachi, which Glenn received as a gift from artist Felix de Weldon.

The lower level of the hall features display cases with news and artifacts about his childhood in New Concord, Ohio, his 23 years in the Marines, his NASA experience (which included going into space again in 1998) and time as a senator. The biggest display is saved for his NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award, which was given to America’s 38 pioneer astronauts and features an acrylic cylinder with a small portion of moon rock from the Apollo 17 mission embedded inside.

“I accused Neil Armstrong of picking up a pebble off his driveway,” Glenn said with a laugh. “But that moon rock, as small as it is, I was humbled when they chose to give it to me.”

Also scattered throughout the building’s four floors are limited edition signed prints, photos and other memorabilia.

Glenn’s work is summed up best in a poem he wrote during one of his astronaut-training tests. Sent into a room with no sound and no light, Glenn had to memorize each line he wrote before writing the next one because he couldn’t see. The first sentence is chiseled into the floor at the front of the Page Hall exhibit: “To mankind’s ever broadening store of knowledge, each must give their own peculiar talents, so that all may better live.”

“You didn’t know if it would be 10 hours or 10 minutes in the room, so I did this long poem just to keep track of things,” Glenn said. “It was a good exercise just to keep alert.”

Thomas said knowing the stories behind the archive makes it enjoyable to work on.

“But the premier perk is getting to know the senator and his wife, Annie, very well,” he said. “Plus it’s a fun challenge as an archivist to take on something this large.”
Glenn said his goal was to give students a passion for public service and work to dispel any “apathy, mistrust and outright cynicism.” He wanted to open a center in the Midwest similar to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Stanford’s Hoover Institute.

“If the efforts we make together now could be a spark, a catalyst toward that potential sometime in the future, I hope you would agree that it is worth considering,” Glenn wrote to OSU President E. Gordon Gee on March 6, 1997, a month after announcing he wouldn’t seek a fifth term in Congress.

Out of that letter was born the John Glenn Institute, which has since merged with the School of Public Policy and Management to form the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.

“If we have too many people turning off from government and politics, we go back to rule by few that we escaped in 1776,” Glenn said. “If some of the exhibits being shown can encourage people to participate, that’s good, and the archive will have served its purpose.”

For a complete listing of the archives, visit library.osu.edu/sites/archives/glenn/glenn.php.

“Hidden Treasures” is a feature in onCampus that appears periodically to spotlight unique and maybe unknown areas at the university. Suggestions are welcomed. Contact Associate Editor Adam King at 292-8419 or king.1088@osu.edu.

Importance of Friendship 7

John Glenn’s space flight in 1962 wasn’t just about orbiting the Earth. It was about keeping pace with the Soviet Union, which had already orbited two cosmonauts by then, during the Cold War. America was nervous about what the Soviets were doing in space, and the United States’ ability to match them was seen as a great achievement.

“The jury was still out on how successful communism was going to be,” Glenn said. “My flight, along with Alan Shepherd and Gus Grissom’s sub-orbital flights, was the comeback where we showed we were not only as good as, but superior to, communism.”

The 45th anniversary exhibit of Friendship 7 at Page Hall, which starts Feb. 20 with an opening ceremony and runs through April 6, will help explain why the space race was so important during those politically charged times. To kick it off, Glenn will speak at COSI’s John Glenn Extreme Screen Theater at 9:47 a.m., the time of his original flight.

The event is open to the public, but tickets are required and can be obtained at 350 Page Hall. There is a two-ticket limit per person. Call 292-4545 for more information.