A very diverse collection of 20,000 items that trace the story of flight from Babylonian cuneiforms to the Wright Brothers. Included are five thousand year-old seals carved from semiprecious stones and used to inscribe clay tablets that record the earliest conception of flight. Rare coins and medals commemorate great aviators and their achievements. Among the collection's thousands of books are volumes printed before 1501 and items which discuss all aspects of aviation, including experiments with wings, balloon ascents, first parachutes, rocketry, and accounts of historic flights. More than 3,000 prints, portraits, engravings, etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs create a unique pictorial history of aeronautics. Important letters written by pioneers of flight are also to be found in the collection's manuscript holdings. Additionally, there are also rare commemorative medallions, sheet music, posters, dime novels, postcards and postage stamps, early flight manuals, catalogues of aircraft equipment, match boxes, and children's games and toys.