Before Amelia (45 page)

Blanche Scott, the first American woman to go up, accidentally or not, revealed in an interview in 1940 the spirit that motivated so many early women fliers: “If I were a young girl now, I don't think I'd fly unless I could be a pioneer in space. I just don't want to do things that have already been done.”

BEFORE AMELIA
EVOLVED from a variety of sources—newspapers, personal accounts, correspondence, journals, and numerous books—all most helpful in describing the unusual women who braved the skies and the period in which they lived. Where possible, the following abbreviations are used: LOC (Library of Gongress), NASM (National Air and Space Museum), MAE (Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Le Bourget). I have identified clippings and articles as accurately as possible, but some are undated and/or unidentified in the source collection.

CHAPTER 1

For material on the early aviators, the biographical files at NASM, the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, and MAE were invaluable. Clippings, articles from journals and personal accounts, and some revealing photographs were wonderful inspiration. Grahame-White's criticism appeared in the
American-Examiner,
1911, no date for the day. Kruckman's comments came from the
New York American,
May 14, 1911. The source of Harry Harper's comments is his 1929 book,
Twenty-five Years of Flying.
Heath and Mur ray's remarks on why women make better pilots than men are from their book
Woman and Flying.
The
New York Times
supplied the quote on excluding women from flying, the day after Quimby's crash.
Flight
was essential for keeping abreast of day-to-day developments in aviation.

CHAPTER 2

The biographical files at MAE were essential to write about French women aviators. In addition, the archives contain the prominent aeronautical journals since aviation began, which have numerous articles on the French lady-birds.

Raymonde de Laroche

An undated article, “Flying in the Presence of the Czar,” from the Marjorie Stinson collection at LOC, is de Laroche's account of flying in Russia. It was translated into English for American readers; the newspaper is unidentified. Harry Harper's article “The Intrepid First Lady of Flight” appeared in
Flying
for March 1957.
Aeronautics
described de Laroche's activities at the Heliopolis meet (February 10, 1910) and the Budapest meet (June 16, 1910). The London
Times
covered the Rheims meet on succeeding days, with a full report, on July 9, 1910, of de Laroche's crash. The
Daily Mail,
an early supporter of aviation, also reported the accident, with activities at the meet.
L'Auto
for October 26, 1909, was the source of an interview with “la Première Femme–Oiseau” and an account of de Laroche's accident, on July 9, 1910. The
New York Herald
reported de Laroche's award for damages on April 19, 1912. The French and American press devoted considerable space to accounts of her death in 1919. Marie-Josephe de Beauregard's
Femmes de l'air
(1993);
Les Aviatrices
(1993), by Bernard Marck;
Memorial des pionniers de l'aviation, 1909—1921
(1998); and
Vingt cinq ans d'aéronautique Française,
vol. II (1934) were useful sources. Gilbert Deloizy and Armel Brault at MAE shared information on de Laroche's private life and her friends in artistic circles.

Hélène Dutrieu

The MAE biographical file on Dutrieu is a fine source for copies of journal articles, newspaper clippings, personal writings by the aviator, and photographs that reveal a young, enthusiastic woman who enjoyed what she was doing. The January 8, 1910,
Flight
showed Dutrieu standing beside the Demoiselle she was learning to fly, wearing a “special aviation costume.”
L'Aérophile
was another dependable source for what French women were doing in aviation. Dutrieu's flights in England and America were reported in the press of both countries, the
Times
and the
Daily Mail
in England in 1910, the
New York Times,
the
New York Herald,
and the
New York American
in September 1911. Her accident at Le Mans was news, and the
New York Herald
reported it on August 29, 1911. “La Première Pilote Belge,” by A. Van Hoorebeeck in an undated journal article summarizes the flier's career; a similar article appeared in
AeroFrance
for July—August 1961. French journals found Dutrieu a sympathetic subject in the years after World War II, for her contributions in realizing “the bird-like dream of Icarus” (
Air Revue,
April 1956). Copies of these articles are in her MAE file, including her own account of beating the women's records.
Les Ailes
published an interview with her on April 5, 1958, and reported her reception of the insignia of the Légion d'Honneur in the presence of Henry Farman and Gabriel Voisin (December 3, 1955). Copies of obituaries from French, English, and American newspapers are contained in the biographical file, but they must be read with care. The books listed previously as sources for de Laroche also contain material on Dutrieu.

Marie Marvingt

Marvingt's long life, her many accomplishments, and her indefatigable work for different causes has created a mountain of source material. The biographical file at MAE is a beginning, the Association de Documentation Aéronautique is another good source, as is the city archives in Nancy, France. The work by Marcel Cordier and Rosalie Maggio,
Marie Marvingt: La femme d'un siècle
(1991), is a must-read. Marvingt's MAE file is chock–full of copies of articles from journals and newspapers describing the exploits of this unusual woman. Copies of her writings are included, some in her own handwriting, in French and a few in English, including her comments on how she conceived the first
avion sanitaire.
Other writers—Edmond Petit, Jacques Boetsch, and Michel Daurat among them—also detailed her long, exuberant life.
L'Aérophile, La Revue Aérienne,
and
Icare
provided fulsome articles depicting her athletic feats, ballooning, aviation ventures, and science accomplishments. The December 25, 1910,
La Revue Aérienne
summarized her career to that date—more than most people accomplished in a lifetime.
Flight
reported her aviation activities regularly, notably August 12, 1911 (the landing in the
boule
game), and August 19, when she was hailed as winner of the Coupe Fémina. (This was in error. Her flight was a record at the time, but Dutrieu would later beat it and win the prize.)
Le Grand Livre du Sport Feminin
(1982), by Françoise Laget and Serge Laget, has little information on Marvingt but includes a wonderful picture of her being carried in triumph by the ground crew after flying a record fifty-three minutes. Marvingt styled herself the “fiancée du danger”—the title of her memoirs, which have disappeared—but an outline of her life, dated June 22, 1948, with handwritten notes, available at MAE, is a good replacement. Gordon Ackerman's article “Fiancée of Danger,” from
Sports Illustrated,
June 26, 1961, captured this extraordinary woman.

CHAPTER 3

Marthe Niel, Jeanne Herveux, Marie-Louis Driancourt, Jeanne Pallier, and the rest of the French women aviators have files at MAE, which help detail their careers. Articles from
L'Aérophile, La Vie Illustrée,
and
La Revue Aérienne
all provided good information, as did the dependable
Flight,
with its weekly accounts of women's activities: training for the Coup Fémina, solo flights, Jeanne Pallier's spectacular flight with a passenger, and even Mathilde Frank's plans to fly the Channel. Jeanne Herveux's file contains notes from an interview about her auto-racing days, a brief biography, and a copy of the contract she signed with La Société de l'Ecole Nationale d'Aviation, plus photographs and promotional material. The deaths of Denise Moore and Suzanne Bernard are noted. Bernard's file is slim, but articles prompted by her death are eloquent reminders that a woman's death was considered more terrible than that of a man in the public mind. Clippings from French and American newspapers are available on many of the women in this chapter. Marck's
Les Aviatrices
(1993), de Beauregard's
Femmes de l'air
(1993), and Schmitt's
Die Ladys in den fliegenden Kisten
(1993) were useful sources.