College Park Aviation Museum Features Smithsonian Photography Exhibit

From Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation: “Art of the Airport Tower” exhibition is on view now through March 10, 2017 at the College Park Aviation Museum, which is located at the College Park Airport, the world’s oldest continuously operating airport. The exhibition is composed of 50 large scale photographs by Smithsonian photographer Carolyn J. Russo and explores the forms and functions of airport traffic control towers in the U.S. and around the world.

Russo traveled to 85 airports in 23 countries to capture images of these towers. The resulting photos capture them as monumental abstractions, symbols of cultural expressions and testimonials of technological change. What started out as a strictly functional structure, the airport tower has become a symbol of its airport, its community and even its country. Travelers to the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport in Sweden, for example, are greeted by the two lookout points perched like birds at the top of the control tower to evoke protective ravens from Nordic mythology, while the crescent-shaped tower at the Abu Dhabi International Airport resembles the sail of a dhow boat to emphasize the area’s proud maritime heritage.

Museum visitors will find local towers from Reagan Washington National and Dulles represented in the exhibit as well as other popular East Coast airports; however, Russo’s photographic eye captures these towers in ways that visitors may not readily identify. The public is invited to build their own “tower” in the hands-on component of the exhibit and folks always need to keep an ear and an eye out for planes and helicopters taking off or landing at the airport!

The traveling exhibition is sponsored by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Air Traffic Control Association, Harris Corp., Rockwell Collins, Saab and Thales. Epson America Inc. and Manfrotto provided in-kind support.

The College Park Aviation Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliations member, is owned and operated by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) which also owns the College Park Airport, the oldest continuously operating airport in the world. The museum and gift shop are open daily from10 am – 5 pm. Admission: $5/adults; $4/seniors (60 and over); $2/children (2-17) and children under 2 are free. To learn more, visit here or call 301-864-6029 or visit the College Park Aviation Museum and the Field of Firsts Foundation’s page on Facebook.

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Photo: A tower at Edinburgh Airport in Scotland. Credit Carolyn J. Russo