American Airlines Management announced February 18, 2019, that the airline will keep intact what AA flight attendants around the world consider a greatly cherished part of their and the airline's history — the so-called “graduation staircase and medallion.”
Historically that staircase, in what was initially called the “American Airlines Stewardess College” when it opened in 1957 in Dallas, is where every flight attendant had his or her picture taken upon completing rigorous training sessions and earning their wings.
C.R. Smith
The building that housed the
Stewardess College
and the Graduation Staircase
is slated to be demolished to make way
for new buildings on a new campus of American Airlines in Ft. Worth, Texas.
After careful consideration and dissent by some stakeholders, AA has decided to preserve and relocate the staircase to
the existing CR Smith Museum.
The iconic graduation staircase and medallion will become part of a massively-redesigned collection of permanent museum exhibits
that together tell the story of the world’s largest airline through the first-person
stories of American Airlines'
employees and retirees.
A spokeswoman for American said,
it has yet to be determined whether future flight attendant training center
graduates will be able to be
photographed on the staircase.
That determination will be made when move of the graduation staircase and medallion to the museum home is completed.