EXPLORATION

60 CHAPTER 3 A New Agency, 1958–1959
The NASA Seal
The creation of an official NASA seal and insignia
was initiated in mid-September 1958 when Victory,
then Executive Secretary of the NACA, sent letters
to the Ames, Langley, and Lewis laboratories soliciting
suggestions for an insignia design for the new
organization. 7 In addition to the request to the laboratories,
an ad hoc committee of staff members at
NACA Headquarters was invited to submit candidate
designs. 8 A few weeks after the invitation for designs
was sent, NASA absorbed the personnel, facilities, and
research activities of the NACA at the close of business
on 30 September.
Modarelli was well prepared for the design competition.
He had already selected the twisted and
cambered arrow-wing concept that he had seen at
Ames and Langley earlier in the year as an element
he would use in his seal design to represent NASA’s
aeronautics program. Modarelli also discussed a competing
seal design with Harry J. DeVoto, head of the
Ames Graphics and Exhibits Branch. DeVoto’s design
included the traditional circular shape required for all
government seals, featuring an outer circle enclosing
the words “NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND
SPACE ADMINISTRATION” and an inner circle.
Inside the inner circle was a blue field with several
star shapes, a globe representing Earth in the center
of the blue field, and the path of a nascent orbiting
body circling the globe. Modarelli adapted the DeVoto
design for the Lewis submittal by adding the advanced
supersonic wing and by modifying the globe and
orbiting body. 9 The stars in the design were not representative
of specific constellations, but were artistic
creations. Likewise, the orbiting body was not based
on a specific satellite.
Members of the illustration section of the Research
Reports Division at Lewis worked on candidate designs
for the seal under the direction of Modarelli. 10 His personal
design, however, received most of the attention.
The ad hoc committee at Headquarters completed
designs of their candidates for the NASA insignia and
submitted them to Victory on 6 October 1958, in
advance of the Center submissions. 11 The four designs
were simplistic variations of the letters “N-A-S-A”
encircled by an orbiting body. The committee’s recommended
design included these elements and a shock
wave superimposed to represent aeronautics. NASA’s
first Administrator, Dr. T. Keith Glennan, rejected
those designs during the selection process.
After the seal design candidates from the Centers
had been submitted to Administrator Glennan for
final selection, several members of Glennan’s staff met
7 “Staff Invited to Submit Designs for NASA Insignia,”
Langley Air Scoop, in-house newsletter, NACA Langley, 19
September 1958. Volume 17 Issue 38, p. 2. Also, The Orbit,
in-house newsletter, NACA Lewis Research Center, 30
September 1958, 1. In reality, the invitation was to design
candidates for the NASA seal. No such invitation occurred
for the NASA insignia.
8 Memorandum from Patrick A. Gavin to John F. Victory
on Proposed NASA Insignia, 6 October 1958. NASA
Headquarters Historical Records Collection, file 4540.
Members of the Headquarters committee were Patrick
Gavin, Paul Dembling, Robert Lacklen, and E. O. Pearson.
9 “Ames Research Center View of NASA Logo Design,”
Letter from Harry J. DeVoto to Steve Garber, 6 May 2001.
Headquarters Historical Records Collection, file 4540.
10 “This Is NASA Insignia,” The Orbit, in-house newsletter,
NASA Lewis Research Center (31 July 1959), p. 1. Lewis
illustrators Richard Schulke, Louise Fergus, and John
Hopkins assisted Modarelli in the design effort.
11 Gavin Memorandum to John F. Victory. 6 October 1958.
NASA Headquarters Historical Records Collection, file
4540. The file includes very poor copies of the designs.