NASA Space and Rocket Center

The last part of my trip was a visit to the NASA Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. With previous knowledge combined with the perspective gained from my interviews, I entered the museum with a few questions in mind: 

1. How does NASA’s intentional inclusion of women and racial minorities plays out in how they tell their history at the museum?
2. How financially accessible is the museum? Who’s the museum’s target audience? 
3. Who visits the museum? 

History of science often leaves with me more questions than answers. 

Both Mrs. Bettina and Mrs. Hawkins highlighted NASA intentional focus on hiring more women and racial minorities. While this is super important, in the museum I hoped to see that the Hidden Figures “movement” had translated into a history that intentionally focused on including the narratives and history of women and racial minorities. I was disappointed but not shocked to see that the history told in the NASA Space and Rocket Center is white male-dominated. While the face and works of people of colored were sprinkled throughout the museum, it was clear that Hidden Figures was a “movement” that had passed. My disappointment soon turned into large questions of “why?” and “how”. Why weren’t these narratives included? And How do we, as historians of science, work for the inclusion of these narratives, not just on the “big screen” but in everyday life? Along with these questions came another question of “how to tell stories that haven’t yet been discovered?” 

The second question I entered the museum with was How financially accessible is the museum? The museum charges $25 for adults and $17 for children ages five to twelve for admission into the museum. The museum was a wonderful experience but coming from a low-income family, my mother would not have been able to afford for my family to attend the museum. What does this mean for who the museum’s target audience is? Along with the general admission to the museum, I got to take a look at some of the space camps offered by NASA and the price for a week-long camp is upwards of $1,000. This adds to the lack of accessibility for low-income families and children to NASA’s experiences. 

This inaccessibility leads me to my final question of “who visits the museum?”. During my visit, I saw a total of six people of color visiting museum (relying on only visuals). While this wasn’t a new experience for me, that of being one of the few people of color in space, it was still disheartening. The location of the museum, no doubt, has something to do with it but I also believe the history that is told in the museum is responsible for this too. During the release of Hidden Figures, I can only speculate that the museum saw a large spike in the number of Black people visiting the museum. Overall, I found myself leaving the museum with more questions than I left with. 

Interview #2: Contracted by NASA

I conducted my second interview with Mrs. Bettina. Mrs. Bettina’s role at NASA is very different from that of my first interviewee, Mrs. Hawkins. Mrs. Bettina is contracted to work on NASA’s new Space Launch System. I was specifically interested in how the experiences of these two women differed both in their “journey to NASA” and in their current experiences as Black women working at NASA. Below is a transcription of some of my interview with Mrs. Bettina. 

Q: How did you get to the position you’re in now? 

A: After receiving my master's degree in mechanical engineering, I started working as a structures engineer at Pratt & Whitney. I worked on developing engines for joint strike fighter and learned a ton. One the day-to-day basis I conducted lots of engine tests and worked around 15 hours a day. Good thing I wasn’t married yet and didn’t have kids. When I did get married, I stayed a Pratt and Whitney for another two and a half years. I then went to work at Lockheed Martin as a load engineer. I loved this job! My responsibility was to make sure that the plane wasn’t overloaded at any time of the flight. I don’t know if other people have the same kind of experience, but when you're in marriage to me it seems like one spouse is going to exceed and one is going to take a backseat. I decided to take a backseat and had my child. My husband did very well, and I did well at Lockheed as well but I liked being a mom. Then we decided to move from Atlanta to Alabama to be closer to family. Huntsville is a hidden jewel for engineers specifically black engineers. I am now working as a contractor for NASA and we’ve been for thirteen years and I don’t see us leaving here because of opportunities. One of the top growing cities for engineers. 

Q: What does your day-to-day schedule look like in your current position?

A: Okay, so where I am now I’m a Systems Safety Engineer. I started here as a Systems Engineer working on the loads panel but with the Space Launch System, I’m a Systems Safety Engineer where we’re trying to foresee any issues that the system may have and we try to mitigate those. So my job on a daily basis is just reviewing documents, hazard reports, risk reports and going to meetings. 

Q: Could you speak on how your gender and race have influenced your work, whether that be through schooling or currently at NASA?

A: I received both of my degrees from Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama. It’s a historically Black university (HBCU), so I didn’t have to worry about being the only black person in classes or anything. Why did I go into mechanical engineering? I don’t know. I knew I loved science and math. When I graduated from high school, I wasn't a very driven person, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So my mom told me you're going into this pre-engineering program at Tuskegee and I was like “okay”. That summer I discovered I liked engineering. I am naturally an artsy person so I love drawing. Mechanical engineering cultivated that as well so it was the best of both worlds. When you look at a mechanical drawing you have to visualize it in 3D and visualize what the system looks like. It was natural for me. My dad used to tell me “you know more about a car then your brother”. I think he saw that in me as well. That’s how I landed in mechanical engineering. I have enjoyed it has been a great experience for me. I have been to places that people haven't been. Gotten to see projects through. At work, to me NASA, the higher-ups have laid the ground for people like me. 

Q: Are there a lot of black women that you work alongside? 

A: Yes! You would not believe. Actually, they just hired a new deputy and she’s a graduate of Tuskegee University. When you go off into your career you really do represent the race. If you are a good engineer and they realize your capabilities then, they are more likely to hire people that look like you. I see more black women than I do black men. In Safety we have more minorities but on the engineering side, I think it is more white male-dominated and I don't know why. I can speculate. To me, it seems like, as in any industry, it is partly who you know. 

Q: What are your thoughts on how black women are portrayed through the history of science? Who’s narratives are chosen to be shared? 

A: I can say at NASA I believe there is a sisterhood now. You see a lot of sistas working together. A lot of us are in sororities and other organizations outside of NASA and we see each other a lot. We look out for each other. I think Hidden Figures did a lot for us. Some people aren’t aware of the history and our history means a lot.

Reflection points: Here are some reflection points that I have taken away from the interviews. I am still working on thinking through the complex history and current existence of Black women at NASA, but both of these interviews were intriguing for different reasons and not only have challenged me to think in different ways but also have inspired me to continue listening to the narratives of Black women in STEM. 

• Differences in the perception of NASA depending on what area they work and how high up they are 
• Families have factored into career decisions
• HBCU vs. PWI experience
• Important to recognize other black women in the field and support each other 
• Why was Hidden Figures so successful? 

Interview #1: NASA's Moon 2024

Hello everyone! My name is Camryn Turner and through the Rosenkrantz Discovery Grant, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville is home to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) largest center, the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. The Marshall Space and Flight Center is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. I was inspired to visit the Huntsville by both Hidden Figures, a 2016 film that tells the story of three African-American women working for NASA in the mid-1900s, and a visit to the Harvard College Observatory as a part of the “Sites of Science” week in the History of Science Sophomore Tutorial in which we learned about women who created the charted the stars and created glass plates. These two historical encounters led me to think more about the forgotten narrative of African-American women in STEM, particularly in aeronautics and space industries, and also to think about the current work being done by African-American Women at NASA. 

 Throughout my trip, I conducted two interviews with African-American women that worked in various sectors of NASA. The first of the two interviewees were Mrs. Lakeisha Hawkins. Mrs. Hawkins serves as the Deputy Manager for the Habitation Systems Development Office at NASA. In about an hour, Mrs. Hawkins and I discussed several things including her personal life, schooling, and current projects. I voice recorded the entirety of the interview and also typed out notes as she spoke. I’m not sure what the best way is to share the material I collected from the interview but I have included a loose transcription of some of the most relevant and interesting material. 

Q: How did you get to the position you’re in now? 

A: I am originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana but moved to Florida in high school. I received a degree in mechanical engineering from Florida State University in ‘97 and went on to receive a Masters degree in engineering management from the University of South Florida. I was always interested in science and space but interned every summer of college with a company having nothing to do with aerospace. After graduation, I took a position at Pratt & Whitney as a Testing Engineer. I was involved in the process of building, developing, and testing, components, and systems for space shuttle main engines. That’s how I became involved with the aerospace industry. 

Q: You mentioned that you have always been interested in science and space, what resources and opportunities if any, cultivated that interest? 

A: Well, I had several teachers who encouraged me to pursue my interest in science and one teacher, in particular, saw something special and me and I was placed into the gifted program. This granted me the opportunity to dive deeper into science. I was also grateful to witness the latter half of the Space Race and watch the Apollo launch on television. 

Q: What does your day-to-day schedule look like in your current position?

A: My schedule changes quite a bit from day-to-day. Due to the Moon 2024 announcement recently made by Vice President Pence, everything I am doing is very new. I am a part of the office that has “formed” for the lunar campaign and my responsibilities include budgeting, fostering and maintaining partnerships (the US and international), communicating with other centers, headquarters, and internally, and architecture discussions. 

Q: You mentioned that NASA is working toward more inclusion of women, how would you say that “Hidden Figures” has played out in reality?

A: Each center has participated in its own way. Around the time of the release of the movie in 2016, there were many red carpet events and interviews of African American women currently working at NASA through a series entitled, “Modern Figures”. It hasn’t been just media and messaging, NASA is serious about putting women in places of authority. This past year, for the first time in history, the Marshall Center has named its first woman director, Jody Singer. She is now responsible for 6,000 civil servants and contracts and billions of dollars of programs. Though it has taken a long time it has been a great step in the right direction. There’s a hallway lined with portraits of all of the previous directors of the Marshall Center and all of them have been white men, beginning with Wernher von Braun in 1960. 

Q: How do those portraits make you feel? 

A: As a woman of color in this industry to be successful, I have had to shut off the discomfort and act oblivious to the lack of representation. I have walked into rooms and been the only woman and for sure the only Black person. I have had to show capability until people no longer pay attention to the “package”. At an agency of 6,000, there are only a few black women in directorial positions, their presence alone is making space for other people. 

Q: Did your race/gender impact your initial decision to work at NASA and/or go into the field in general? 

A: For me it was personality-based. I am very hard-headed, so my mentality was “I can show you better than I can tell you”. This field can be difficult because it’s harder to support people who need to feel safe. I’ve found comfort and support in other black women in the field. Mentorship is extremely important.

Q: What are your thoughts on how black women are portrayed through the history of science? Who’s narratives are chosen to be shared?

A: There isn’t a strong narrative of Black women in science. Unfortunately, I find it harder to think of a stereotype of Black women in science and I don’t have a mental image of a Black women scientist. 

Q: Do you see that changing in the near future?

A: I think it could. It’s going to take a lot of grassroots work and outreach to children at a younger age. When my daughter was in the 6th grade, she told me that math and science weren’t “her thing”. We had a conversation and figured out that she thought math and science weren’t “cool”. I think we need to reach 5th and 6th-grade girls before people begin to tell them that science isn’t their “thing”. I have reached back into my communities to mentor and work on programming for young girls and I think that’s what needs to continue to happen. We need to strategically carve out time to make space for others. 

This interview was wonderful! I am grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with Mrs. Hawkins. As a “Modern Figure,” her experiences at NASA are extremely important when thinking about the historical narratives of Black women in STEM and how they have affected how others view Black women in STEM and how women view themselves in STEM. 

Mrs. Hawkins receiving an award from Florida A&M University.

A photo from an interview conducted with "Modern Figures".

Exploring Malaria in Ghana #3

On another day, I went to a meeting with a Professor of Public Health at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. We sat in his office and debriefed the purpose of my trip to Ghana and he helped me in organizing myself as far as where I still needed to visit for my exploration. 

During our conversation, we broke malaria treatment methods into 3 categories: orthodo/western treatments, home based/traditional treatments, and faith based healing. The orthodox method referred to doctors, nurses, and hospitals. The traditional remedies could be those that people make in their homes, or those that they can purchase from herbalist shops. Faith based healing refers to seeking the help of pastors or religious leaders for cures to ailments, rather than looking for medicine. He told me that some of his colleagues, who are medical professionals, often themselves seek out traditional healers when they are dissatisfied with their orthodox treatments. He spoke of a specific healer, who treated various injuries and broken bones. This man had no formal schooling, but gained his knowledge from information that was passed down over generations in his family. This man’s sister, similarly was involved in healing. While this professor preferred orthodox forms of treating illnesses, he doesn’t doubt the usefulness for others.

I asked for some of the traditional/homemade treatments that he’s come across for malaria. He told me that as a kid, his parents would boil the bark of the neem tree. He would put a towel over his head and the bucket containing his water in order to inhale the vapors. He told me that some people believe that frequent urination helps to hasten the disease process. So, they will mix kenkey and sugar together, and drink plenty of water afterwards. The usage of the neem tree for treating malaria came up again, except the professor had a different way of utilizing it. This made me curious about other possible variations people make of the neem tree for medicinal purposes. 

After leaving this meeting, I visited an herbalist. From my first day in Ghana, I frequently noticed herbalist stands along the road, with advertisements promising to cure a wide array of diseases. One billboard for an herbal center caught my eye in particular- it was very large, and boasted of having treatments for a wide array of diseases. I was struck that while it was an herbalist center, they also offered testing for STIs, malaria, and for liver functions. The images for the billboard displayed a meeting of traditional and orthodox science: a bottle of herbal mixture, a microscope, and an image of a person receiving bandages for an injury. 

At Masha Allah Herbal Shop, I spoke to the owner about treatments she would recommend to someone who came seeking help with malaria. She told me that she would first ask the customer about the symptoms they were suffering, which would lead her in the direction of the right product. She showed me a handful of different brands of herbal mixtures that treat malaria symptoms. I chose to purchase one of the malaria treatments because I was surprised at the ailments it claimed to cure: diabetes, blood pressure, typhoid fever, malaria, jaundice, liver problems, kidney problems, swollen legs, gonorrhea, waist pain, headache, stomach pains, bodily pains, rheumatism, itching, fibroid, menstrual cramps, and yeast infections. This is because these diseases stem from completely different things, some bacterial, fungal, some dealing with complicated issues of organ systems. Yet, only ingredients were listed on the bottle. 

The owner of the shop was trained by an herbal manufacturing company, where she spent 4 years learning to diagnose people of diseases and learning to prepare mixtures herself. She said this program was intensive. She told me that often, people will go to hospitals and be given treatments for certain issues, like back pain, that never seem to go away. When a specific patient came to her with such an issue, she asked them a series of questions, and realized that they had an untreated STI that led to their issues. Knowing this, she gave them the appropriate remedy. Personally, I was surprised, since I came into this conversation with preconceived notions that orthodox medicine was more effective than herbal treatments. 

During my time with my family, there were several times when I would give an aunt tylenol for bodily aches they had, and this filled a void of options they had. I observed my aunt give one of my cousins a drink of charcoal and water to treat her stomach pains. I was surprised at this, yet it worked. When I returned to Cambridge, i went to CVS for pepto bismol, and was surprised to see a box with activated charcoal tablets underneath the pepto bismol. My trip definitely opened my eyes to the effectiveness of traditional ways of treating ailments. Although I am still skeptical about my herbal mixture that boasts for cure 18 ailments. However, people continue to buy these remedies because there must be some truth to them, especially when they fill in the gaps that orthodox care leaves. 

The herbal mixture I purchased for 10 Cedis ($2) and brought home with me. An important observation that this is a cheap remedy that is accessible to many people.

The herbalist shop that I visited. 

Another malaria herbal mixture that I didn't end up purchasing. 

Eugenics in Berlin and Dresden Part #3

Dresden was the final destination of a long summer in Europe before I headed back to Boston. It had a different feel than Berlin, smaller and more quaint, but with the charm of an old historic city that is populated mainly by locals. There was definitely less English spoken, but enough for me to get around. The two main sites I visited were the German Hygiene Museum and the Military History Museum, besides doing my own touring of the Old Town district and a botanical garden. I was excited to see the German Hygiene Museum especially because I thought I would be able to find a trove of information there for my research.

Botanical Garden

Old Dresden

Procession of the Princes

The Hygiene Museum was not what I was expecting; I was reminded of the Science Museum back at home in Boston. After becoming wary of the word “hygiene,” I was almost surprised to see families and school trips at the museum. The museum was divided into exhibition rooms focusing on a certain theme of the human experience; for example, "Living and Dying," "Eating and Drinking," "Sexuality," "Memory, Thinking, Learning," etc. 

German Hygiene Museum

It is important to remember the museum in its original context: a place that provided health education to the public. It was founded in 1912, when Dresden was known for being a "healthy" city, whose reputation was based on its famous sanatoriums. I was able to comprehend how this might be problematic as I explored some of the display cases in an exhibit laying out the history of the museum. One shelf contained some models of Greek statues, and the description next to it was titled "Idealizing the Body." As a champion of hygiene, the museum and the city were able to determine who was considered "healthy" versus "unhealthy." The display "Idealizing the Body" demonstrated that a classical Greek figure was the standard for health and beauty to Germans in the early 1900s, and was set forth as an example by the museum. 



When the ancient Greeks codified the dimensions and form of the organic, natural body in their sculpture in the fifth century B.C., they established a paragon of physical beauty that remains a standard down to the present day... Ever since the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum was founded in 1911, it, too, has repeatedly turned to classical statues for its exhibition models of the body and its production of instructional materials.

Later on, when the Nazis came to power, the museum more strongly pursued a political agenda so that they had fully embraced the thinking of eugenics by 1945. According to the exhibition of the museum's history, after 1933, offices in the museum were occupied at least intermittently by Nazi Party organizations, the SS, and government institutions dealing with information about health, "race" ideology, and eugenics. One of the projects of the Hygiene Museum was a eugenics propaganda show called "Miracle of Life," an initiative that was led by Bruno Gebhard in 1935. He later organized the exhibition "Eugenics in New Germany," which was displayed in several cities in the U.S. for the American Public Health Organization. Clearly, the site was an important political tool that indirectly helped to cause the persecution of many groups of people.

This was all fascinating information that contributed to my research, but unfortunately there was not much more than a small section in the museum dedicated to its eugenic history. I did not have much more success in the Military History Museum, which did not have the same historical roots and covered a much more general theme on war. Overall, I feel that the biggest challenge of my research project was trying to parse out information about racial science from the broader and more common subject of Nazism and World War II, which is rather easy to present since there is so much history that one can dive into. In addition, there might be some truth to the idea that we as the visitor of these sites and museums are more fascinated by the horrors that the Nazis committed rather than the broader social context and ideology that led to their actions. While I did not find as much as I had hoped on my adventures in Germany, the information that I did collect was valuable, and I appreciated above all the chance to see these objects of propaganda up close and actually visit the sites of science.

Thank you to the History of Science department, Professor Anne Harrington, and the Rosenkrantz Discovery Fund for making this incredible experience possible. I am so excited to take my research a further step forward by applying it to my junior paper in tutorial this year!

Exploring Malaria in Ghana #2

On a different day, I visited the Centre for National Culture in Kumasi. I went to this one with my uncle as well as 3 of my cousins, since they had the chance to visit there before. We started off by going through the different shops that were offered. We stopped at a bookstore, since I thought I may find books on Asante culture. After looking through many of the books, I decided to buy two books. The first was a book on adinkra symbols, as they are symbols that capture traditional Asante proverbs and sayings. I thought this would be an interesting place to browse popular values. I also found a book on traditional children’s stories. One story featured in this book described how disease came to exist in the world. Besides their educational value, I found these books as pleasurable reads. 

At another shop, I overheard two people having a conversation about a healing tree. I asked, and I learned about the eucalyptus tree that was surrounded by a fence. This tree was known by many as capable of curing many diseases, and so many people had come to touch the tree that they decided to protect it. 

We then went to the Ashanti Library, which was still within the cultural center. There, I first went into the children’s library, to see if I could find more children’s fables. I didn’t find any more, but I did find a book on HIV/AIDS. The author wrote the book targeted at youth, and decided to write it in prose, rather than traditional health terms. This way, the message would be interesting, and he could still convey important information about the disease. I found this as an interesting way to disseminate public health information. While not related to malaria, it was in the general public health theme. At the adult library, I found that most of the books were donated from American and British libraries from as far back as the early 90s. The information was not very up to date as well. In the medical section, I found a western travelers guide on staying healthy abroad, that featured a section on malaria. Besides this, there was not much on the topic, which was very surprising.

We then went to the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum. At this palace, we recieved a tour of the artifacts. The tour discussed Ashanti rulers, the royal family, ceremonial clothing, jewellery, and protective amulets. At the end, I asked the guide for specific info relating to malaria and disease. He was able to tell me that for uncommon diseases, ancient Asante people would consult oracles or deities in the communities for help. For example, HIV was once considered a punishment for sins people had committed. Oracles were seen as people who were past the physical world. They were a connection to ancestors in the ancestral world, and these ancestors had lots of knowledge to impart on people. Malaria however, was a disease that the Asantes were very familiar with. For common diseases, chief herbalists would examine people and prescribe herbs. A common treatment for malarial fevers was to boil and drink the barks of the neem, mango, or avocado trees. From my visit here, I learned about the dual physical and spiritual understanding of disease. For example, Asante kings had swatters made of horses tails, and would use these to swat away at mosquitoes, and also other bad spirits. While people had physical solutions for common problems, they also believed that alone, they weren’t equipped to combat all illnesses. I felt a great sense of pride at my people’s culture, and really enjoyed this museum visit. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to photograph the beautiful artifacts. 

On a different day, we went to the Manhyia Palace Museum. The museum was originally the residence of the Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I, and now serves to commemorate Asante culture. This tour was similar to that of the one at the Jubilee Museum in content. The difference is that it houses more of the priceless artifacts from past leaders.  There was also a building with archives, and while the content was unrelated, we looked through them briefly.

eucalyptus  tree known for healing properties

mobile library in front of children's library

The preface to a book on HIV that caught my eye 

Me, standing in front of Jubilee Museum

Me, standing in front of World Peace Bell at Manhyia Palace

There were peacocks everywhere at Mahyia!

The opening gates at the Cultural Center