This collection contains personal papers of Roger D. Arno, a retired NASA Ames Research Center engineer and artist, including portfolios, sketches, drawings, posters, artifacts, and optical media. The bulk of the collection comprises digital and paper copies of Arno's artwork, in the form of technical and astronomical illustrations representing engineering concepts, as well as editorial cartoons about NASA people and projects. Also present are Arno's memoirs about his career with NASA.

Roger Arno's civil service career at NASA Ames Research Center spanned from 1966 to his retirement in 2000, after which he continued to work as a consultant for another decade. Unusually, Arno worked as both engineer and artist, dual roles that proved to be complementary. As an engineer, Arno supported many research and design projects (proposed and actual) that were related to manned, unmanned, and biological research missions. As an artist, he illustrated numerous engineering and design concepts and created outreach materials. His artwork ranged from precise computer-aided designs and detailed illustrations of elaborate scenes, to logo art and animations. In the 1960s and 1970s, Arno's designs were rendered by hand, mainly in the form of pencil or pen and ink drawings. Later, the majority were executed by computer, with increasing sophistication as design software matured. Ever the commentator, Arno combined his artistic ability with a healthy sense of humor to provide amusing sketches of colleagues and projects, as well as frank, sometimes acerbic, editorial commentary about NASA.

Number of containers: 3

Volume: .9 cubic feet

Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-government material, researcher must contact the original creator. This collection contains copyrighted material.

Collection is open for research.