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Muir-Harmony, Teasel

Muir-Harmony, Teasel

National Air and Space Museum staff
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Muir-Harmony, Teasel

National Air and Space Museum staff

Positions

Background And Education

Education And Training

Professional Biography

  • Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony is a historian of spaceflight and Curator of the Apollo Collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Her research explores the intersections of space exploration, politics, and culture, with particular attention to the history of space diplomacy.

    She earned a Ph.D. in the history of science and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has held fellowships from the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation and the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. Before joining the Smithsonian, she was a visiting scholar at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, a curator at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, and an associate historian at the American Institute of Physics.

    At the Smithsonian, Muir-Harmony oversees a collection of approximately 3,000 artifacts from the Apollo, Skylab, and Apollo-Soyuz programs, including the Columbia command module, Lunar Module 2, the Lunar Roving Vehicle Qualification Test Unit, and the Skylab Orbital Workshop. She is the Lead Curator of the Destination Moon and One World Connected galleries.

    Muir-Harmony is the author of Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo (Basic Books, 2020), which examines the role of the Apollo program in American foreign relations. The book received the American Astronautical Society's Eugene M. Emme Award and was named one of the best books of the year by Wired, The Globe and Mail, and Physics Today. She is also the author of Apollo to the Moon: A History in 50 Objects (National Geographic, 2018), which explores the history of lunar exploration through the material culture of spaceflight.

    In addition to her scholarship and curatorial work, Muir-Harmony has contributed to television documentaries, digital media projects, and other public history initiatives. She conceived the six-part documentary series Apollo’s Moon Shot and served as a historical advisor. She also collaborated on the series' companion augmented reality application, which used high-resolution digital scans of Smithsonian Apollo artifacts and received a Webby Award and an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding New Approaches to Documentary. She served as historical advisor for the U.S. Postal Service's 1969: First Moon Landing commemorative stamps. Muir-Harmony regularly provides historical commentary and interviews for numerous media outlets, including the BBC, NPR, CNN, Scientific American, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

    Beyond her work at the Smithsonian, Muir-Harmony teaches in Georgetown University's Science, Technology, and International Affairs program. She co-organizes the Space Policy & History Forum and the International Space Station Heritage Project, initiatives that bring together scholars, policymakers, and space professionals to examine the history and future of space exploration. She participates in the U.S. Department of State's Speakers Program and has lectured in more than a dozen countries. She is an Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics and serves on the History Committee of the American Astronautical Society and the editorial board of Modern American History. She previously served on the Executive Council of the Society for the History of Technology.

Awards And Honors

Publications

Selected Publications

Activities

Responsible Collections Areas

  • Apollo Collection

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