Senior Curator Dan Hagedorn

Senior Curator Dan Hagedorn has been with The Museum of Flight since February 2008. He has over 20 years of curatorial, collections management and library services experience. Prior to The Museum of Flight, Hagedorn was the Team Leader of the Research and Reference Section, Archives Division and Adjunct Curator for Latin American Aviation at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. to the Museum. In 1998, he was Curator for the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Latin American Aviation at the Smithsonian Institution ¡ARRIBA! The History of Flight in Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Hagedorn is the author of over 18 aviation books—16 about Latin American aviation—and more than 260 journal articles for widely read aviation periodicals. He has been published in four languages, and he is an Associate Editor of Air & Space Smithsonian magazine. He was a founding member of the Latin American Aviation Historical Society and is a member of the Board of Directors of that international organization.

On joining The Museum of Flight, Hagedorn said “after a lifetime as a student of aviation history, I feel as though I have found in this wonderful place the perfect combination of enthusiasm and passion.”

Hagedorn served 27 years in the United States Armed Forces, with several tours in Latin America. He has visited all but one of the traditional Latin American nations. He is a graduate of Villa Maria College (Magna Cum Laude), the University of the State of New York (Cum Laude, Regents Designee) and the United States Army Command and General Staff College, as well as the Modern Archives Institute, National Archives.

At age 14 Hagedorn learned to fly and soloed on his 16th birthday, before gaining a drivers license. While in the service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal (Second Oak Leaf Cluster), as well as a number of other United States and foreign awards. In 2006 he was decorated with the Orden Merito Santos-Dumont by the Government of Brazil for services to the history of aviation in that country. Hagedorn and his wife Kathleen have five children and eight grandchildren.