An employee of the Ohio Historical Society, 1968–1974, Crouch planned the exhibits for the Neil Armstrong Museum, Wapakoneta, Ohio and the history exhibitions for the Ohio Historical Center. He accepted a curatorial position with the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in 1974, and prepared exhibitions for the opening of that building in 1976. He transferred to the National Museum of American History (NMAH) in 1983, where he remained until 1990, rising to the position of chairman, social and cultural history. He was involved in planning the "More Perfect Union: Japanese-Americans and the U.S. Constitution" exhibition. He was named chairman of the aeronautics department of the NASM in 1990, and in 1999 was named senior curator, aeronautics. Crouch was appointed by then-president William J. Clinton to chair the federal advisory board planning activities commemorating the first flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright in 2003. He also participated in and worked to resolve the issues over the Enola Gay bomber being displayed at the National Air and Space Museum. Crouch is the author of some fifteen books and many articles, primarily on topics related to the history of flight technology.[3]
The giant leap: a chronology of Ohio aerospace events and personalities, 1815-1969. Columbus, OH: Ohio Historical Society. 1971.
A dream of wings : Americans and the airplane, 1875-1905. New York, NY: Norton. 1981. ISBN0393013855.
Blériot XI, the story of a classic aircraft. Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Air and Space Museum. 1982. ISBN0874743451.
The eagle aloft : two centuries of the balloon in America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1983. ISBN087474346X.
The Bishop's boys : a life of Wilbur and Orville Wright. New York, NY: W W Norton. 1989. ISBN0393026604.
Aiming for the stars : the dreamers and doers of the space age. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1999. ISBN1560983868.
First flight : the Wright Brothers and the invention of the airplane. Washington, DC: Division of Publications, Harpers Ferry Center National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. 2002. ISBN0912627719.
Wings : a history of aviation from kites to the space age. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 2003. ISBN0393057674.
Rocketeers and gentlemen engineers : a history of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics-- and what came before. Reston, VA: AIAA. 2006. ISBN1563476681.
Lighter than air : an illustrated history of balloons and airships. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2009. ISBN9780801891274.
Apollo : ten years since Tranquility Base. Washington, DC: National Air and Space Museum, distributed by the Smithsonian Institution Press. 1979. ISBN0874745063.
Charles A. Lindbergh : an American life. Washington, DC: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. 1977. ISBN0874743427.
Crouch was awarded a 1989 Christopher Award for his book The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright. In 2005 he won the AIAA Gardner-Lasser Literature Prize for the book Wings: A History of Aviation From Kites to the Space Age.[7]
^Gaffney, Timothy R (October 14, 1999). "Dreams of Wings - Boy who loved planes has made a life as keeper of nation's aviation history". Dayton Daily News. p. 1C.
^"Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation". Archived from the original on 2007-08-16. Retrieved 2007-09-25. In 1924, architect Kenneth MacDonald, Jr., and sculptor Federico Giorgi built the Valhalla Memorial Rotunda, a structure now known as The Portal of the Folded Wings - Shrine to Aviation, on the eastern edge of this property. Originally intended to be the entrance to Valhalla Memorial Park, visitors drove through the arches via Valhalla Drive, off Hollywood Way. The Rotunda, with its graceful garden walls and three reflection pools, became a tourist attraction and was used for musical concerts, radio broadcasts and other public events during the 1920s and 1930s.
^"Resting Place for Early Aviators Gets a New Look". Daily News of Los Angeles. April 1, 1996. They were among America's aviation pioneers - men and women who flew around the world in rickety contraptions at the turn of the century, undaunted by fear and seduced by the skies. In life, they were united by their love of adventure. Today, many of them are still together - interred in an obscure monument in a North Hollywood cemetery, directly under the takeoff path for Burbank Airport. Located in a corner of the Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park and Mortuary, the