Air & Space Museum

Souvenir buildings are everywhere. If you pay attention, or verge on being obsessed like some building collectors, you can find building replicas almost everywhere. It’s not always possible to add these to our personal collections, but its fun to discover them in unusual locations. One such location is the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport. It’s the companion facility to the Smithsonian Air & Space museum on the National Mall in D.C. Together, the two locations showcase the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world. Also contained in their collections are some souvenir buildings. During a recent visit, I found some souvenirs commemorating the Spirit of St. Louis and Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight. In a display case at the enormous museum is a clock depicting the flight from NY (represented by the Statue of Liberty) to Paris (Eiffel Tower) and the Spirit of St. Louis aircraft on top of a clock in the center. An Art Deco chrome serving tray with similar, but shinier, depiction of the flight was also there. I discovered the museum’s web site also has a collections database search function. Great information is available about each item including the manufacturer, dimensions, materials and description.