Making Donations to the Museum

Thank you for your offer to donate to the National Model Aviation Museum. We encourage and actively solicit the donation of artifacts and displays, and through donations like yours, the Museum has become one of the premier model aviation museums in the world. Please read and follow the instructions below to begin the donation process. Please do not send anything to the Museum without prior approval from Museum staff, as we can not guarantee the items will be accepted. Items may be returned to you if they artifacts are not needed, or are in poor condition.

For monetary donations, or an in-kind donation for supplies or equipment, please call the Museum Director, Michael Smith, at 765-287-1256, ext. 500.

If you want to donate a model aircraft of any type: Please fill out the Artifact Submission Form (for a copy of Acrobat Reader, click here) and mail it to the Museum Registrar. The donation will be reviewed by the Museum Acquisition Committee. The committee reviews all potential model donations to ensure that the collection accurately and equally depicts and preserves the history and ongoing development of aeromodeling. Please note this when filling out the form and pay special attention to answering questions 16 and 17. All model aircraft donations must be approved by the committee.

If you want to donate radio equipment, engines, building and flying equipment, or memorabilia please send a list of the items, including a basic description of each item and a short, honest assessment of its condition, to the Museum Registrar. The list will be compared to our database, and the Registrar will get back to you about what items the Museum would be able to accept.

The Museum Registrar can be reached by e-mailing Maria at mariav @ modelaircraft.org (remove spaces) or calling 765-287-1256, ext. 508.

If you want to donate books or magazines, please send a list, including the title and author of the book, or the title and issue date of the magazine, to the Librarian. Please note that the Lee Renaud Memorial Library has been collecting magazines for several years and has a large collection already. As such, in most cases there are only a few issues we need. Once the list has been received, the Librarian will check it against the database and get back to you about what books and magazines are needed in the library.

The Librarian can be reached by e-mailing Rich at richardl @ modelaircraft.org (remove spaces) or calling 765-287-1256, ext. 506.

If you want to donate photographs, programs letters, film, or other paper audio/visual documents relating to aeromodeling, please send a list including a basic description of the documents to the Museum Archivist. The Archivist will then review the items and contact you regarding what is needed in the Archives.

The Archivist can be reached by e-mailing Jackie at jackies @ modelaircraft.org (remove spaces) or calling 765-287-1256, ext. 511.

Any staff member may be reached through regular mail by addressing a letter to their attention at:
National Model Aviation Museum
5151 E. Memorial Dr.
Muncie, IN 47302

Please be aware that the Museum accepts donations unconditionally. This means that the donated items become the sole property of the Museum. Acceptance does not necessarily imply that the items will be on display even though that is one of the goals and reasons for accepting such items. Displays are rotated and changed to give the Museum a fresh look and therefore items which were on display may not always be kept on display, but will be placed in our temperature controlled storage. In addition, the museum occasionally lends artifacts to other museums for temporary exhibits. All items added to the collection are treated with the best of care and respect based on current Museum, Library and Archives standards whether on display or in storage.

Again thank you for your interest in donating to the Museum. We look forward to hearing from you.