The announcement of the donation comes less than a week before Bezos, who stepped down from Amazon on July 5, will travel into space aboard the New Shepard rocket on Blue Origin’s first passenger flight. Meanwhile, the Air and Space Museum, one of the most popular Smithsonians, is preparing to reopen July 30 for the first time since the pandemic shutdowns began in March 2020. It also comes during ongoing debate over the role of wealthy philanthropists in museum funding and whose names are honored on the walls of many public institutions. (The Freer/Sackler gallery, named partially after collector Arthur M. Sackler, rebranded as the National Museum of Asian Art in 2019.)

Source: Washington Post July 14, 2021 18:00 UTC