Dive into the story behind the Col. Richard Gimbel Aeronautical Library, located at the top floor of USAFA's McDermott Library!----more----

On the sixth floor of the Academy’s McDermott Library is a temperature — and humidity-controlled room that houses one of the institution’s most historic collections.  The Colonel Richard Gimbel Aeronautical History Collection — totaling about 20,000 items — is one of the world's best collections of artifacts and publications documenting the human dream of flight.  Gimbel, a military aviator during World War II and an heir to the Gimbel's Department Store fortune, began collecting aeronautical memorabilia after buying a trunk full of aviation-related materials at a bombed-out London bookstore.  He would go on to collect many items for his aeronautical collection, including books, manuscripts, coins, prints, postcards and comic books.  The collection covers the transition of flight from hot-air balloons to parachutes and powered flight.  In the mid-1950s, aviator Charles Lindbergh learned about Gimbel's collection and suggested to his friend, Lieutenant General Hubert Harmon, the Academy's first superintendent, that the institution pursue the donation of the collection.  During his lifetime, Gimbel never confirmed that he would bequeath the collection to the Academy.  But in 1970, when Gimbel died, his will left the collection to USAFA.  The oldest item in the collection, dated to 2700 B.C., is a stone seal from southern Mesopotamia that bears the image of an outstretched eagle.  The Gimbel book collection includes a German volume from 1493 and an Italian volume from 1489.  The collection's numerous medallions commemorate the first manned balloon flight in France in 1783 and the Wright brothers' historic flight in 1903.  The collection even includes a Mickey Mouse cartoon book that depicts flying.  Cadets access the Gimbel collection for research, but it is also open to the public by invitation or by writing to the Academy library director.

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