Wenham Museum's New Exhibit Celebrates 50 Years of Manned Space Travel

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of manned US space flight and thanks to curator Jane Bowers the Wenham Museum is celebrating.

On Thursday, Bowers and her colleagues welcome the public to view their newest show titled “Blast Off! Sky-High and Sci-Fi Space Toys” an exhibit of space toys, authentic space artifacts and other curious space-themed paraphernalia

The show is Bowers’ dream child. “When we’re planning for new shows we all usually sit down together and brainstorm,” said Bowers. “But this one was my idea.”

Bowers, the curator for the Wenham Museum, is petite, blond and cheery but when asked about NASA’s project Mercury or what she thinks of the Star Wars pre-quels her jaw firms and her voice deepens.

“Yeah, I’m a geek,” she admits.

And as if to confirm this, Bowers beelines it to a table of ray guns when asked which of the objects included in the exhibit is her favorite. Selecting a 1950’s vintage ray gun cast from metal she marveled at its quality.

“They made this so it would hold up to real play," she said.

 The exhibit is intended to appeal to children and parents and is therefore being assembled with fun in mind.

“We’ll have an art station set up where kids can create their own toys. And children will be able to sit in a lunar rover," Bowers said noting the rover is not a real one but a pretend rover adapted from a vehicle made earlier for the museum by an aspiring Eagle Scout. There will also be model planets and a child-sized rocket ship complete with button activated countdown.

“We’re trying to associate this day in history," Bowers said, noting the exhibit has an educational component and includes such thrilling real-life space objects as tile from the heat shield of the Space Shuttle and a scale model of the first actual liquid fuel powered rocket engineered in the 1920’s by Robert Goddard of Worchester.

Despite Earth’s tremendous distance from the planets and the depth of the space man seeks to explore, the exhibit’s collaborators will aim bring it closer to home with the help of local collections.

Windy Henry of Beverly provided a model of the Star Wars AT-AT Walker and other items are on loan from North Shore collectors.

Bowers’ own cousin, Charley Precourt, flew missions for the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

“His (claim to) historical importance,” says Bowers, “is that he was the first Space Shuttle pilot to dock with the Mir Space Station.”

To Go:

“Blast Off! Sky-High and Sci-Fi Space Toys” opens June 16, and runs until September 18.

 Exhibit events include:

Outer Space Saturday- A Family Friendly Exhibit Reception featuring a moon bounce, comic book artist Jay Piscopo and ice cream sundaes, Saturday, June 25, 4:30 p.m.-7 p.m.

Junior Jedi Training, Wednesday, June 29, 1 p.m.-3 p.m.

Draw On Your Own Creativity with Jay Piscopo, Wednesday, July 20,10 a.m.-2 p.m.

3,2,1 Lift Off! Build Your Own Rocket!, Saturday August 6, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 

Starry Night: Planetarium and Telescopes, Thursday August 18, 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m.