Trailside Museum, 1961

This subseries consists of Washburn’s office files from his tenure as Director of the Museum of Science and documents his activities at the Museum from the period 1956-1980. Files include external correspondence; internal memoranda; meeting minutes and agendas (primarily from meetings of the Museum trustees and annual meetings of the Corporation); handwritten notes; statistical summaries of budgets, expenditures, and attendance; building plans; event invitations and programs; speech notes and drafts; and published reports. Correspondents include: trustees and corporate members, political figures, donors, Museum visitors, artists and other exhibit contributors, Museum employees, notable scientists, museum directors, and university administrators. Topics in the subseries include: major construction projects, fundraising, exhibit design and fabrication, state and local government support, Board of Trustees activities, Washburn Award recipients, and human resources and other administrative functions. This series also addresses Washburn’s responsibilities to professional organizations and other institutions, including the Pacific Science Center, the National Armed Forces Museum (a planned Smithsonian museum that never came to fruition), the Association of Science and Technology Centers, and the New England Aquarium Corporation. The bulk of the series is text but it also contains some photographic materials (prints and negatives).