‘America’s Attic’ : L.A. Is First Stop for a Traveling Exhibit Marking the Smithsonian’s 150th Anniversary : SCIENCE FILE / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment

The last time the Wright brothers’ biplane, the Vin Fizz, was in California, it completed the first transcontinental crossing in 1911. It finally touched down in Long Beach, but not before it crash-landed in Pasadena and several other locations along the way.

This time, the fragile plane was disassembled in Washington, packed in a specially designed tractor-trailer and reassembled in Los Angeles.

The plane is one of more than 300 artifacts selected from the collections of the Smithsonian Institution to be included in “America’s Smithsonian,” an unprecedented traveling exhibition marking the venerable institution’s 150th anniversary.

“The 150th anniversary offered us the opportunity to make our collection accessible to millions of Americans,” said Michael Heyman, director of the Smithsonian.

Los Angeles is the first stop on a two-year, 12-city tour. “America’s Smithsonian” will open Feb. 9 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

It is the centerpiece in an effort to bring some of “America’s attic” to the American people.

Anyone who has ever had to move knows what an ordeal it can be to transport a baby grand piano or grandmother’s heirloom china. Each poses its own unique handling problems.

Just imagine, then, what must be involved in moving the Wright brothers’ biplane or an Apollo space capsule. Or such fragile items as Thomas Edison’s light bulb, a 4-million-year-old shark jaw or Abraham Lincoln’s stovepipe hat.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had a [traveling] exhibit this large,” said J. Michael Carrigan, director of “America’s Smithsonian.”

The 50,000-square-foot exhibit is the largest traveling show mounted by the Smithsonian or any other museum, museum officials said. By comparison, the famous “King Tut” exhibit contained only 55 objects in 12,000 square feet.

Another 50,000 square feet of space will hold a carousel, gift shop and exhibits by corporate sponsors Intel, MCI, Discover Card and TWA, who have underwritten the costs of the tour.

“It will be grand. This is the first time anything like this has taken place,” said John Fulton, collections management coordinator.

The logistics involved in moving such a collection are daunting. More than 20 tractor-trailers filled with exhibits and artifacts started moving the show into town this week.

Carefully controlled environments for the artifacts have been created for every step of the way, from the trucks used to transport them, to the packing materials, display cases and exhibit halls. All are climate-controlled.

Cases have to be sturdy enough to withstand the rigors of a two-year tour and special protective coatings have been applied to rare metal surfaces to prevent deterioration, conservation coordinator Tracey Shields said.

To ensure against damage from earthquakes, seismic brackets have been installed. And because the collection is so valuable, security will be extremely tight.

“The Smithsonian has sent objects across the country and across the world, but they’ve never done anything on this scale before,” said exhibit design manager Nigel Briggs.

The Apollo spacecraft, which has been on loan to Rockwell, only had to move across town, rather than across the country. But even that was a feat.

Because of its size, the six-ton Apollo spacecraft had to be moved from its home in an open-air flatbed truck to the Convention Center, like some strange-looking cone-shaped house. Then, Briggs had to dismantle some temporary exhibit walls to create a pathway for the capsule, then rebuild the walls once it was in place.

Something as fragile as Thomas Edison’s light bulb is usually packed in a foam core cut specifically for its size and lined with a very soft material--literally encapsulated in foam--then shock-mounted on more foam to get a cushioned effect, according to Fulton.

As for Vin Fizz’s cross-country flight in 1911, “There were many accidents en route,” Fulton said. “It was followed by a train full of spare parts.”

On its current trip to Los Angeles, “It was in a climate-controlled tractor-trailer because it’s very sensitive [to the elements]. It is wood and fabric, basically,” Fulton said.

A more fragile relic, on the other hand, posed an entirely different set of problems.

“How do you transport Abraham Lincoln’s hat as it’s falling apart” before your eyes? Briggs asked.

“We decided to house this object in its display case permanently for the length of the show, [so] we won’t have to touch it for two years,” he said.

“We wanted the best, but we also wanted whatever we took to survive the tour,” Briggs said.

The heart of the exhibition will be contained in three galleries: “Discovering,” “Remembering” and “Imagining.”

In the “Discovering” gallery, where much of the scientific and technological objects will be found, visitors will see the Mercury 7 spacecraft that rocketed the first American, Alan Shepard, into space in 1961 and such one-of-a-kind items as Alexander Graham Bell’s box telephone. The Apollo command module will be displayed in this gallery.

There will be meteorites and moon rocks, and a dizzying array of fossils, from tiny trilobites to the foot of an Allosaur--one of the largest flesh-eating dinosaurs that walked on two legs.

Amelia Earhart’s flight suit and Chuck Yeager’s jacket put a human face on the age of air and space exploration. To add a more whimsical touch, a “phaser” from the television series “Star Trek” has been included.

“We wanted to bring together the kinds of things folks have heard about for years and make [them] available to people who won’t ever get to Washington,” Carrigan said.

In conjunction with the exhibit, staff members have worked with local educators and museum officials to provide a host of educational outreach programs for schoolchildren.

There also will be “Smithsonian Minutes,” similar to the “Bicentennial Minutes” of 1976, broadcast throughout the year, television specials and a Smithsonian birthday bash on the National Mall on Aug. 10, the day legislation was signed establishing the Smithsonian Institution.

“It’s a monumental undertaking in every respect and a lot of fun,” Briggs said. “This is the job of a lifetime for a lot of us.”

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The Smithsonian’s home page can be accessed on the Internet at https://www.si.edu.

Tickets for “America’s Smithsonian” can be obtained by calling toll-free (800) 913-TOUR. Tickets are free but have a service fee of $3.50 each. A limited number of same-day tickets at the Convention Center also will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. It will be open daily through March 7.