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The sign accompanying the von Braun engineering tools.

It reads

Tools of the Trade

Wernher von Braun

These are the traditional tools of the trade for engineers and designers. Prior to the advent of calculators and computers, calculations were performed on a slide rule, and schematics were hand drawn using pencils, compasses, and other tools like these. This set belonging to Dr. Wernher von Braun is a pre-World War II set made in Germany. Like von Braun and his team of engineers, these tools came to the United States after war's end and became part of the American space program.

Dr. von Braun worked for the United States Army from 1945 to 1960. In 1960, von Braun became the director of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In his role at Marshall, von Braun oversaw the development and creation of the rockets that put the first Americans in space and eventually took them to the Moon.