How Have We Imagined Other Worlds?
Dr. Margaret Weitekamp
NASM Curator of Space History
What kinds of questions do historians ask?
And how do objects help us to answer those questions?
Twin goals:
• Display part of the Museum’s collection of space-themed toys
• Think about what lessons the players draw about spaceflight worlds when they play
Method:
• Sort collection for best examples
• Pull artifacts from storage and inspect for exhibitability
• Group artifacts into display groups based on research about each piece
• Think about the story the artifacts can tell when grouped together thus
• Write short labels that tell that story – and entice visitors’ reexamination
• Work with exhibit designer to arrange artifacts most effectively
• Installation: Bring together artifacts, printed labels, plex stands, and shelf layouts
Space-Themed Toys
Fall Roughly into 4 Groups
1.
2.
3.
4.
Ray Guns
Spaceships
Playsets
Action Figures
Parallels with another American genre, the Western:
a hero with a gun, a sidekick, a best gal, a trusty steed
(in this case, a spaceship), a home base (either a
spaceship/space station or a fort) and a villain who is
often non-white/alien (sometimes, in space
adventures, rather literally)
The Staging Area
and the Case
Unpacked Toys are
Laid Out on Foam
Padding
Arranging Toys According to the Plans
Made Weeks Earlier
NASM Museum
Specialist
Samantha Snell
Adjusts One of
the Ray Guns
Samantha Snell and Designer Linda King
adjust the cord for a hanging toy
Japanese Tin Toy
Robots (and their
Labels and Stands)
Await Installation in
the Case
An Elephant Tin
Toy Installed on its
Plex Stand with a
Mockup of the
Box Behind It
Museum Specialist (and donor) Jeannie
Whited with a Babylon 5 CD-ROM set
Arranging MEGO Star Trek figures
The Final
Arrangement of
the Ray Guns
Astronaut Barbies
The Full Case: 139 Artifacts Represented
The Curator with the Completed Case
The First Members of the Public Come
by to Appreciate the New Case
What Do Toys Reveal About
Space Science Fiction?
• Toys guides how players position themselves in spacethemed stories
– Carrying a ray gun means imagining oneself to be the hero
– Playing with a playset or action figures means acting out spacethemed scenes as the director of the action
– Space-themed toys almost never suggested that the player take
the point-of-view of the female lead or the villain
• Space-themed fiction reflects our world and how we see
ourselves (or would like to see ourselves) more than an
real ideas about other worlds