Today in History: Some Out-of-This-World Souvenirs

Ever get that nervous feeling when you're going through Customs, unsure of what to declare? Wonder if the crew of Apollo 11 felt similar.

If you look at their 1969 cargo declaration from when they returned from the lunar surface, you’ll notice “moon rock and moon dust samples.” One of those pieces, of course, was later embedded in the Cathedral’s beloved Space Window.

Our favorite part has to be the “Departure from: Moon.”

As the story goes, according to archivist Margaret Shannon, a thin slice of moon rock (about the size of a Kennedy half-dollar) was given to the Cathedral after some considerable back-and-forth with the Nixon White House.

President Nixon was no fan of Dean Francis Sayre’s criticisms of the Vietnam War, and wasn’t inclined to allow the transfer of the moon rock. But it had the support of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

Collins (who attended St. Albans School) worked with NASA Administrators Thomas Paine and James Fletcher to lobby the White House to OK the gift. Fletcher persuaded the White House that the Cathedral was a national shrine, and this might be the only chance tourists had to see a piece of the moon.

Fun fact: Artist Rodney Winfield cycled through 12 different designs for the window before the final version was approved. The window was dedicated five years after the Apollo 11 crew splashed down; President Nixon was mired in Watergate and did not attend.