Reunion exhibition to feature Sputnik satellite, Enigma code-breaking machine

"Treasures from the Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination" will run from June 7 through October at Cornell's Kroch Library, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

The exhibition will feature an original Soviet Sputnik satellite, an Enigma machine and an original copy of "Micrographia" from 1666. The collection belongs to Jay Walker '77, founder of Priceline.com, who is chairman and curator of TEDMED, the world's leading multidisciplinary conference on the future of health and medicine.

Walker will speak about the role of imagination in our past and future June 7 at 4:30 p.m. in Milstein Hall Auditorium. A reception follows at 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Kroch Library's Hirshland Gallery.

Items from the Walker museum will also be on display at Day Hall, the Johnson Museum of Art, Mann Library and the Tompkins County Public Library. The exhibition marks the first time an extensive selection of objects from this private collection will be on public view.

Highlights include:

  • One of the original Soviet-made Sputnik satellites, just like the one launched into space in 1957. Seven Sputniks were made; only one was launched.
  • The Vanguard satellite, the American answer to Sputnik, made from parts of the actual U.S. satellite, which blew up on the launch pad in December 1957.
  • An Enigma machine that enciphered and deciphered secret messages, and were most notably used by the German government in World War II.
  • An original copy of Robert Hook's "Micrographia," the 1666 book that depicted drawings Hook viewed through a microscope. It coined the word "cell" -- named after monks' rooms.
  • A wide array of rare books, including an early 16th-century illuminated Book of Hours, a Nuremberg chronicle and early astronomy and medical texts.
  • A facsimile of the original 1776 Declaration of Independence; one of two known copies made directly from the original, using a wet-copy process, will be on view at the Tompkins County Public Library.