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Remarkable personal guestbook of Frederick C. Durant III, assistant director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum from 1965 to 1980, bound in red leatherette and stamped "Guest" on the front cover, 12.25 x 10.75, signed inside by hundreds of visitors from 1970 to 1999. In addition to signing their names, most write out their city or address, with many adding additional remarks. Especially notable signers include: pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh; Apollo 11 LMP Buzz Aldrin; Apollo 11 CMP Michael Collins; Apollo 15 LMP Jim Irwin; Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan; Apollo 7 Commander Wally Schirra; Apollo 7 LMP Walt Cunningham; Skylab 4 Commander Gerald P. Carr; Space Shuttle astronauts Richard Truly, Bruce McCandless, and Robert Parker; astronomer Carl Sagan; Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry; Star Trek actors George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, and James Doohan; Walt Disney Studios artist Ward Kimball (sketching a "Space Mouse"); space artist Robert McCall ("On the occasion of visiting my Space Show at the Smithsonian"); famed illustrator Norman Rockwell along with his wife Molly; and celebrated science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke.
Other signers include: space historian Fred Ordway, Esther Goddard (widow of rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard), industrial designer Raymond Loewy, rocket scientist Ernst Stuhlinger, sci-fi writer Ben Bova, American Interplanetary Society founder G. Edward Pendray, the 'father of inertial navigation' Charles Stark Draper, rocket scientist Eberhard Rees, physicist S. Fred Singer, space artist Paul Calle, Star Trek screenwriter Dorothy C. Fontana, Caltech rocket scientist Bill Pickering, Paul C. Fisher (inventor of the 'space pen'), space physicist James Van Allen, science fiction authors Lester and Judy-Lynn Del Ray, Greg Benford, and Poul Anderson, sci-fi illustrators Michael Whelan, Rick Sternbach, and Stephen Hickman, and aerospace illustrators Pierre Mion, Jon Lomberg, and Pam Lee. Further signers include affiliates of NASA, COMSAT, and the European Space Agency; representatives of NASA contractors like Rockwell, Rocketdyne, and McDonnell Douglas; faculty from various universities and institutions; media members; and various other visiting guests. A few of the notable signers—including Aldrin, Collins, Irwin, McCall, Clarke, Bova, Draper, Sagan, and Roddenberry—sign multiple times throughout the book. In overall fine condition, with tears to the spine, not affecting any of the interior pages.
Frederick Clark Durant III (1916–2015) was a multifaceted American figure—magician, author, naval aviator and test pilot, chemical engineer, and prominent rocketry and spaceflight expert. After earning a chemical engineering degree from Lehigh University in 1939, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before transitioning into aerospace as a rocket engineer with Bell Aircraft and later as Director of Engineering at the Naval Air Rocket Test Station. Durant played key roles in early satellite planning, notably Project Orbiter in the mid-1950s, and led the American Rocket Society and the International Astronautical Federation. Durant also served as a key liaison, technical advisor, and secretary to the 1953 Robertson Panel, convened by the CIA to evaluate the UFO phenomenon, and consolidated their findings in what is known as the 'Durant Report.' From 1965 to 1980, he served as Assistant Director of Astronautics at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, where he helped build its space and rocket collections, authored entries on rockets and spaceflight for the Encyclopedia Britannica, and co-authored Worlds Beyond: The Art of Chesley Bonestell. His personal guestbook—signed by moonwalkers, rocket scientists, and sci-fi icons—stands as a veritable 'who's who' of spaceflight culture in the mid-20th century.
