International Women's Air & Space Museum

The International Women’s Air & Space Museum at Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport occupies an unusual position in aviation heritage: it serves as both a public airport concourse and a focused archive of women’s contributions to flight and spaceflight. Originating in the early efforts of the Ninety-Nines, the international organization of women pilots founded in 1929 with Amelia Earhart as its first president, the museum grew from a simple committee collecting memorabilia into a dedicated institution. Opened in 1986 in Centerville, Ohio, in the former home of a Wright brothers’ uncle, it later moved in 1998 to its current urban lakeshore setting when the collection outgrew its original space. Its exhibits and materials trace the technical, professional, and cultural roles women have held in aviation and aerospace, from pioneer pilots to later generations involved in engineering, testing, and space-related work. Co-founder Bernice Steadman, a member of the privately funded Mercury 13 group of women tested for astronaut fitness, symbolizes the museum’s emphasis on documenting overlooked qualification, training, and capability rather than myth. For military aviation enthusiasts, it offers a structured context for how women’s skills and careers intersect with broader airpower and aerospace history.