John William Augustine's Macrame in he Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Macrame done by John W. Augustine
and hung in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

July 22, 1980
Director
Air & Space Museum
7th & Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, D. C. 20024
In 1976 when I was visiting my parents, my father, John W. Augustine, ex-Navy man (Mexican Campaign & WW I), ex-Marine (WW II & Korea), who was then 82 years old was working on some macramé panels that were to be hung in the new Air-Space Museum. It seems that while he was in the hospital someone from the Museum was looking for someone who could do macramé and found my father, who still pursued his knot-tying ability that he had learned in the Navy many years before (you should see the pictures he has done in macramé). In any event he and the Smithsonian got together and he agreed to make you the macramé pieces that you wanted.' He spent many hundreds of hours on it and made not only the three hanging panels but the valance and the sections of cable-laid line, I assume he also made the bell pull but I do not know this for a fact. All of his descendants were quite proud.
Last week I, along with one of my sons and two of my grandchildren (one of my father's 14 grandchildren and 2 of his 23 great-grandchildren), visited the Air-Space Museum to see the macramé that their grandfather had made. No place on or around the hanging did we find any indication that it had been hand-made or by whom, or even pointing out the ancient naval tradition and sailor's art it represented
We leafed through the $50 ($35 to members) book about the Air-Space Museum with the intention of buying at least one copy if we could find anything in it about our ancestor's macramé. We could find only 2 pictures that showed a-'small section of the cable-laid line and that only because the airplane being pictured could only be shown by showing the cable-laid line.
I realize that the macramé was only background for the quarterdeck display, window-dressing, so to speak. I realize that there are probably many things in the Museum that are handmade, but I expect most of them were made by the staff of the Museum and/or were bought and paid for. But somehow I doubt very seriously that very much of it was made by someone who was already 82 years old and who donated hundreds of hours of the limited time he had left. He died July 3, 1979.
Would it not enhance the display if you put up a small sign, "This macramé handmade by John W. Augustine, USN,. USMC(Ret.)," It might even be of interest to add that he learned the art as a young sailor before and during World War I.

NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
WASHINGTON, D. C. 20560
August 13, 1980
Mrs. Philip M. Carden
607 North 14th St.
Nashville, Tennessee 37206
Dear Mrs. Carden:
Thank you for your letter of July 22 regarding your father's macramé panels in the Sea-Air Operations Gallery in the National Air and Space Museum. You are quite correct in suggesting that we acknowledge your father's fine contribution to the quarterdeck display. We are taking the necessary action to have a suitable sign displayed on the quarterdeck.
Thank you for your continuing interest in the National Air and Space Museum.
Sincerely,
E. T. Wooldridge, Jr.
Associate Curator
Aeronautics

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Disclaimer: The purpose of this Web Page is to share information for the purpose of research. I have not proved documentation of all genealogy material, nor have I kept source notes as I should. But I had lots of fun and met some great people along the way..

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