Martin Collins is a curator of civilian application satellites at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where he curates the civil applications satellites collection, which includes weather, remote sensing, and communications satellites and related technology. His recent work has explored the use of new media for exhibitions and other museum presentations. Martin is also the head of the division’s Oral History Project.

In 2012, a fortuitous trip to the Palestinian Territories led Martin to partnering with non-profit Al-Nayzak to create STEP, the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program, that brings STEM education and outreach to Palestinian high school students.

After receiving his B.A. from the University of Michigan, Martin earned an M.A., M.L.S., and Ph.D. in History of Science and Technology from the University of Maryland. Read more . . .

Article

• Apollo in the Age of Aquarius..  Technology and Culture.  60:640-642. 2019
• Collins, Martin. 2019. "Making the Pacific, Making Japanese-U.S. Relations." Pacific Historical Review, 88, (4) 511–523. https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2019.88.4.511. 2019
• The 1970s: spaceflight and the problem of historically interpreting the in-between decade 2018
• History as Intellectual and Organizational Tool in Creating a Collections Rationale: The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Spaceflight Artifacts as Case Study 2017
• German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie: Making Sense of the Nazi Past during the Civil Rights Era by Monique Laney.  Technology and Culture.  57:691-692. 2016
• Arguments that Count: Physics, Computing, and Missile Defense, 1949–2012 by Rebecca Slayton.  Technology and Culture.  55:1028-1030. 2014
• Introduction: Adelheid Voskuhl’s Androids in the Enlightenment: Mechanics, Artisans, and Cultures of the Self.  History and Technology.  30:252-254. 2014
• Contours of America’s Cold War.  Quest: The History of Spaceflight Magazine.  20:56-57. 2013
• Series Preface 2013
• History and Technology Forum: Eden Medina’s Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile - Introduction.  History and Technology.  28:403-405. 2012
• Solazzo, Caroline, Dyer, J. M., Clerens, S., Collins, Martin J., and Wyeth, P. 2012. "Proteomic Profiling of the Photo-oxidation of Silk Fibroin: Implications for Historic Tin-Weighted Silk." Photochemistry and photobiology, 88, (5) 1217–1226. 2012
• History and Technology Forum: Chandra Mukerji’s Impossible Engineering: Technology and Territoriality on the Canal du Midi. Introduction.  History and Technology.  27:183-186. 2011
• Cotten Seiler's Republic of Drivers: A Cultural History of Automobility in America: Introduction.  History and Technology.  26:359-360. 2010
• History and Technology Forum: Chris Otter's The Victorian Eye: A Political History of Light and Vision in Britain, 1800-1910. Introduction.  History and Technology.  26:147-149. 2010
• History and Technology Forum: Matthew Connelly's Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population. Introduction.  History and Technology.  26:59-60. 2010
• A Note from the New Editor.  History and Technology.  25:1-2. 2009
• Editor's note.  History and Technology.  25:163-164. 2009
• Disposable Absorption Containment Trunk 2007
• Origami Crane 2007
• SAMS Crew Logbook 2007
• Sally Ride's STS-7 Flight Suit 2007
• Skylab Orbital Workshop 2007
• Space Shuttle Concept Model 2007
• SpaceShipOne 2007
• Values, Intellectual History, and the Standpoint of Critique.  History and Technology.  23:153-160. 2007

Blog Posting

• Earth Day and Spaceflight 2017
• Presidential Panel: Theorizing Human Agency and the Self 2017
• Arthur C.Clarke’s Personal Papers Arrive at the Museum 2015

Book

• A Telephone for the World: Iridium, Motorola, and the Making of a Global Age 2018
• History and Technology: An International Journal; vol. 32, no. 2 2016
• History and Technology: An International Journal; vol. 32, no. 3 2016
• Objects in Motion: Globalizing Technology 2016
• History and Technology: An International Journal, Volume 30, Issue 1-2 2014
• History and Technology: An International Journal, Volume 30, Issue 4 2014
• History and Technology: An International Journal,Vol.30, Issue 3 2014
• History and Technology: An International Journal; Vol. 29, no. 3 2013
• History and Technology: an International Journal; Vol. 29, no. 2 2013
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 29, no. 1 2013
• History and Technology: an international journal; Vol. 29, no. 4 2013
• Material Culture and Electronic Sound 2013
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 28, no. 1 2012
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 28, no. 2 2012
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 28, no. 3 2012
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 28, no. 4 2012
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 27, no. 1 2011
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 27, no. 2 2011
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 27, no. 3 2011
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 27, no. 4 2011
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 26, no. 1 2010
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 26, no. 2 2010
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 26, no. 3 2010
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 26, no. 4 2010
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 25, no. 1 2009
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 25, no. 2 2009
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 25, no. 3 2009
• History and Technology: an International Journal; vol. 25, no. 4 2009
• After Sputnik : 50 years of the Space Age 2007

Chapter

• The Global in the 1980s and 1990s: Liquid Modernity, Routines, and the Case of Motorola’s Iridium Satellite Communications Venture.  81-110. 2017
• Collins, Martin J. 2014. "Telstar." In Milestones of space: eleven iconic objects from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Neufeld, Michael J., editor. 20–33. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press. 2014
• Collins, Martin J. 2013. "Series Preface." In Analyzing Art and Aesthetics. Goodyear, Anne Collins and Weitekamp, Margaret A., editors. v. 2013
• Making a Global World: The Iridium Satellite Venture.  153-162. 2012
• ”Freedom to Communicate”: Ideology and the Global in the Iridium Satellite Venture.  82-98. 2012
• A Second Nature Rising: Spaceflight in an Era of Representation.  185-202. 2008
• "V-2 Spectrograph," "Minimum Orbital Unmanned Satellite of the Earth (MOUSE),".  25-49. 2007
• Challenger Memorial Plaque.  204. 2007
• Columbia Space Shuttle Tiles.  191. 2007
• Enterprise, The First Space Shuttle.  188. 2007
• Astronaut Pamela Melroy's Scrunchie.  244. 2007
• Eileen Collins' STS-93 Clothing.  240. 2007
• Guy Bluford's STS-8 Flight Suit.  195. 2007
• Manned Maneuvering Unit.  198. 2007
• Production and Culture Together: Space History and the Problem of Periodization in the Postwar Era.  615-629. 2007
• Space Shuttle Launch-Entry Suit.  205. 2007
• Space Station Freedom Model.  201. 2007
• Spacelab.  236. 2007

Book

• Canadelli, Elena, Beretta, Marco, Ronzon, Laura, and Collins, Martin J., editors. 2019. Behind the Exhibit Displaying Science and Technology at World's Fairs and Museums in the Twentieth Century. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. Bud, Robert, Finn, Bernard, and Trischler, Helmuth. Artefacts: Studies in the History of Science and Technology, 12. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.9781944466237. 2019