We had a patron in the Woodson today who was working with some materials from the Albert Thomas (’19) Papers. In a box filled with Congressman Thomas’s speeches I found this one, which he gave not long after NASA made the announcement in September of 1961 that the new Manned Space Center would be located in the Houston area. I’m not certain of the exact occasion for the speech but it obviously was given around the time of Rice’s Semi-Centennial celebration in the fall of 1962. If you want a concise description of what the Rice bigwigs were thinking about the NASA relationship at its inception, this is exactly what you’ve been looking for:

This picture was in the next folder, labeled “NASA Photos, 1965 or 1966.” I would contend that it is actually a picture of ducks with some buildings behind them:

Bonus: