Story: Now Boarding at SFO: The Airport is the Museum

Next time you find yourself waiting for a delayed flight at San Francisco International Airport, relax and take a look around. There's a lot to see, because the airport is also a museum. Not in the metaphorical or historical sense; SFO is quite literally a museum, with a fulltime staff of curators and accreditation from the American Association of Museums, the leading organization for museum administrators in the United States. Depending on how you count attendance, it may even be the busiest museum in the country. Consider: The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC attracted almost 6 million visitors in 2006, but more than 33 million passengers passed through SFO.

The exhibits at the airport fall into two basic categories: displays of commercial airline history and collections of pop culture artifacts. The museum staff at SFO knows their audience — first and foremost, they're airline passengers, not museum-goers, so the exhibits are curated to capture the attention of people who are rushing to get from one place to another. Stroll down the United Airlines concourse this summer, for example, and you'll find an extensive collection of kitsch pottery manufactured during the 1930s on Catalina Island, off the California coast. In the lobby of Terminal 1, there's a wonderful exhibit of vintage flight attendant uniform hats that shows how styles evolved from the early, nursing-derived caps of the 1930s to the mod headwear from the 1960s and 1970s.

At any given time there are dozens of exhibits scattered throughout SFO, but if you really want to unwind, meander over to the International Terminal, where you'll find a dedicated aviation library and museum that's set in a room designed to replicate the look of San Francisco's original terminal building, circa 1937. Set up camp in one of the hushed carrels, grab something to read, and try not to forget that you eventually need to catch a flight.