Virtual Author Talk: Tom Crouch Online
Smithson’s Gamble: The Incredible History Behind the World’s Largest Museum with Smithsonian Curator Emeritus Tom Crouch
A Library Speakers Consortium and Smithsonian Institution Collaboration
Tom D. Crouch, a Smithsonian veteran of almost 45 years, paints a robust picture of a unique American establishment and its lasting legacies in his book Smithson’s Gamble.
Follow the fascinating growth and development of the world's largest museum and research complex during its first 60 years. Told in rich detail, Smithson's Gamble reveals how, as it defined a role rooted in curiosity and exploration, the Smithsonian helped to shape the nation's developing identity.
Brought to you in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium.
Can't make the event? Watch a recording of this author talk at https://libraryc.org/mcl/archive.
- Date:
- Tuesday, February 24, 2026
- Time:
- 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Branch:
- Virtual
- Online:
- This is an online event.
- Audience:
- Adult
- Categories:
- Virtual Programs
About the Author: Tom Crouch joined the Smithsonian in 1974 and has served both the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of American History in a variety of curatorial and administrative posts.
Dr. Crouch has won several major writing awards, including a 1989 Christopher Award, a literary prize recognizing "significant artistic achievement in support of the highest values of the human spirit," for The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright. His book, Wings: A History of Aviation from Kites to the Space Age, won the AIAA Gardner-Lasser Literature Prize for 2005.
In the fall of 2000, President Clinton appointed Dr. Crouch to the Chairmanship of the First Flight Centennial Federal Advisory Board, an organization created to advise the Centennial of Flight Commission on activities planned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of powered flight.