Before Amelia (47 page)

CHAPTER 10

The Marjorie Stinson Collection, LOC, was an important source for information on Katherine Stinson; NASM, less so. LOC includes a chronology of Katherine's career with family information, a short bibliography, copies of magazine articles, clippings from newspapers around the country, copies of aviation journal articles with news of Stinson,
Billboard
news, and coverage of her trip to the Orient, with photographs. The collection is impressive. Her first loop-the-loop is noted (
Chicago Tribune,
July 18, 1915), as are the night flight at Los Angeles (
Los Angeles Times,
December 18, 1915) and the Chicago—to—New York City flight (Chicago and New York papers, May 23—30, 1917).
Aerial Age
featured her on the cover (June 21, 1915) and noted looping (August 23, 1915) and use of the new tractor machine at the Michigan Fair (September 13, 1915). A reporter's ride with Stinson appeared in the August 16, 1914,
Kansas City Star
(Missouri). Flights through the West and South were recorded by local newspapers—the
Tucson Citizen
(November 3—5, 1915), and the
Mobile Register
later in November. “Aviation as an Attraction,” by William Pickens, was published in
The Billboard
(December 18, 1915). The New York papers (May 20—27, 1916) headlined Stinson's flight at Sheepshead Bay.
Flight
(August 9, 1917) covered Stinson's career, including the Red Cross flight. The San Diego—San Francisco flight was reported in the
San Francisco Examiner
(December 12—13, 1917). John Underwood's
The Stinsons
(1969) was a good source of information on both Stinson women, as were books by Charles Planck (
Women with Wings,
1942) and Edward Jablonski (
Ladybirds:Women in Aviation,
1968). The
Curtiss Flyleaf
(July 1918) described Katherine's aerial mail flights in Canada;
Stamps
(December 9, 1933) detailed her aerial mail flight in Helena, Montana.
FAA Aviation News
(November 1971) featured an article on Stinson: “The Flying Schoolgirl.” A copy of an obituary from the
New Mexican,
July 10, 1977, is in Stinson's LOC file.

CHAPTER 11

References for Ruth Law are many and varied. NASM's biographical file is a start. Two articles were especially helpful: “A Lady's Flying Past,” by Emily Watson (no publication identified), and “Flying as It Was,” by Law, in the
Sportsman Pilot
(undated). Both contain her personal comments. Law's interview with the Oral History Research Office, Columbia University, was another source for many of her quotes, descriptions of unusual incidents, and the trip to the Orient. Most useful was the press coverage. The
New York Journal
covered her first flights at Saugus, Massachusetts, as did the
Boston Herald;
one can trace her career by reading what newspapers had to say wherever she exhibited—the East, Midwest, or the South. The aviation journals covered her activities, notably:
Aerial Age Weekly
(loops at Daytona Beach, Florida, January 17, 1916; the dinner honoring her, December 18, 1916);
Flying
(the record distance flight, December 1916; dinner in her honor, January 1917; the Liberty Bond appeal, August 1917; “Recruiting by Aeroplane,” February 1918). The Chicago and New York City newspapers (November 19—21, 1916) reported the record distance flight, as well as Law's war work (1917, 1918). Her comments on French aviation are from the
World
(February 19, 1917); those about her return from Europe, the
New York Times
(April 4, 1917). “Go Get the Kaiser” appeared in the
Chicago Sunday Herald
(July 22, 1917). Lines of poetry in the Lynn obituary (
Lynn Item,
December 5, 1970) were written by Mrs. Douglas Robinson, the sister of President Theodore Roosevelt, on the occasion of the 1916 dinner.

CHAPTER 12

The Marjorie Stinson Collection in LOC is the primary source of information on the flier and her period. She once planned to write a book on early aviation and did considerable research. The biographical file on Marjorie at NASM is far less informative. Two of Marjorie's articles were most useful; they supplied many of the quotes in this chapter: “Diary of a Country Girl at Flying School” (
Aero Digest,
February 1928) and “Wings for War Birds” (
Liberty,
December 28, 1929). In addition, press clippings provided details about her career and quotes: her first public flight (Brownwood, Texas,
Bulletin,
October 10, 1914); the Stinson school to lease land (
San Antonio Express,
January 18, 1916); and the crash at Cleveland (
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
September 5—6, 1916). The
San Antonio Express
and
San Antonio Light
were especially good for reporting on activities at the school and Marjorie's flying career (she plays Santa, her movie work, her membership in the U.S. Reserve Corps).
Aerial Age Weekly
printed regular notes on her activities. Stinson's personal correspondence provided not only family details but also insight into her thinking on a variety of topics.

CHAPTER 13

The accounts in this chapter relied heavily on the biographical files at NASM. These pilots did not make a big splash in the aviation world, but they were there.

Julia Clark's file has limited information. When she died, newspaper accounts provided considerable detail about her, but some of the facts are questionable.
Smithsonian Studies in Air and Space
(no date) devoted a page to her.
Flight
's confusion was apparent in the June 29, 1912, issue.

Bernetta A. Miller's file is slightly fuller. She wrote two articles, “How I Learned to Fly” (The
World Magazine,
December 2, 1928) and “First Monoplane Flights for the United States Government” (unpublished, written October 1962), which were helpful. A copy of Mrs. Ruth Bird's letter to Paul Garber provided details about Miller at St. Mary's Hallon-the-Delaware in New Jersey. Correspondence with Elizabeth Hiatt Gregory was illuminating.
Aero and Hydro
for February 8, 1913, reported Miller's near miss with oil. Newspaper clippings reported her debut flight, her unhappiness with the state of aviation, and her obituary.

Florence Seidell and Mrs. Richberg Hornsby are known because of their license certificates and brief mention in the press. There is no record of their membership in the Early Birds.

Dorothy Rice Peirce (Sims) described her aviation career in a chapter in her book,
Curiouser and Curiouser
(1940). That, her license certificate, a newspaper photo, and a clipping provide the sum of information on her.

The NASM file for Helen Hodge Harris contains brief but good information on her life and flying career. The Aero Club report is there, as is her application for membership in Early Birds, a brief biography, and correspondence from her daughter with pertinent details.

Hilder Smith's flying career is chronicled in copies of three articles, one from the
Sportsman Pilot
(no date), another from
U.S. Air Services
(August 1930), and the third from the
Christian Science Monitor
(no date). Her file also has copies of her lesson log, showing her time in the air, and an affidavit from her teacher, Arthur Burns.

Alys McKey Bryant's file at NASM was a useful start, and newspaper coverage fleshed out her story. There is a biographical sketch, an application for Early Birds, a copy of her reply to the Canadians thanking them for the air-mail cachet, an article from the
Sportsman Pilot
(November 15, 1940), and correspondence with Early Bird members. Frank H. Ellis's books
In Canadian Skies
(1959) and
Canada's Flying Heritage
(1954) were useful sources. Press stories supplied quotes and details about her flying career, especially those in the
Seattle Daily Times
(April and July 1913), the
Akron Sunday Times
(June 30, 1918), and the
Sandusky Register
(May 18, 1919). Obituaries in the
Washington Post
(September 1954) and the
Evening Star
(September 8, 1954) were helpful.

Sources for Lily Martin included a brief biographical file at NASM; the James V. Martin papers at the Garber Facility, NASM; and several references in
Flight.
Among them were flying at Hendon (May 27, 1911), flying a Benoist flying boat from Sandusky to Cleveland (August 21, 1914), and night flying in Alaska (August 23, 1913). Clippings from the
Boston Post
(June 29, 1911) and the
Cleveland Plain Dealer
(July 24, 1914) provided helpful details.

CHAPTER 14

The Helen Richey story had three sources: a
Ninety–Nine News
(April 1978) article, “Helen Richey, First Lady at the Airlines,” by Glenn Kerfoot; Ann Butler's article, “She Lived to Fly,” in
The Pittsburgh Press Roto
(October 6, 1974); and the
Miami Herald
(October 5, 1939).
Administrator's Fact Book, FAA
(April 2001) and “The Facts 2001,” a brochure printed by Women in Aviation International in Daytona Beach, Florida, provided statistics on women in aviation. The Scott quote appeared in an unidentified clipping in the NASM file.

Ackerman, Gordon. “Fiancée of Danger.”
Sports Illustrated,
June 26, 1961.

“Aerial Mail Service in Canada.”
Curtiss Flyleaf,
July 1918.

Ahner, Hans. “Melli Beese—die erste deutsche Flugzeugführerin.” Dresden: Kulturbund der DDR, Arbeitskreis Luftpost, 1986.

Archdeacon, Ernest. “Mademoiselle Marvingt, Une Sportswoman Extraordinaire.”
La Revue Aérienne,
December 25, 1910.

Association pour la Recherche de Documentation sur l'Histoire de L'Aéronautique, Navale.
Memorial des pionniers de l'aviation, 1909—1921.
Paris: Association pour le Recherche de Documentation sur l'Histoire de L'Aéronautique, 1998.

Beaubois, Henry, and C. H. de Levis Mirepoix.
Siècle de L'Avion.
Paris: A. Fayard, 1949.

Beaumont, André (Lieutenant Jean Conneau).
My Three Big Flights.
New York: McBride, Nast & Co., 1912.

Beauregard, Marie–Josephe de.
Femmes de l'air.
Paris: Editions France–Empire, 1993.

Beese, Melli. “Unser Flugplatz—in Memoriam.”
Motor,
May—June 1921.

———. “Melli Beese Fliegerleben Selbstporträt im Telegrammstil.”

Beevers, David.
St. Peter's Church Vauxhall, A History.
London: Vauxhall St. Peter's Heritage Centre and the Vauxhall Society, 1991.

Bennett, Charles. “Katherine Stinson Otero: On a Wing and a Prayer.”
Santa Fean Magazine,
October 1993.

Bernadi, Fiorenza de, ed.
Pink Line—A Gallery of European Women Pilots.
Aeritalia, 1984. Bilstein, Roger E.
Flight in America: 1900—1983.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.

Binyon, Laurence.
The Letters of Maurice Hewlett.
London: Methuen and Company, 1926.

Bland, Lilian E. “Positive and Negative Angle.”
Flight,
July 30, 1910.

———. “Miss Lilian Bland Flies.”
Flight,
September 10, 1910.

———. “The ‘Mayfly'—The First Irish Biplane, and How She Was Built.”
Flight,
December 17, 1910.

Boase, Wendy.
The Sky's the Limit:Women Pioneers in Aviation.
London: Ospry, 1979.

Boetsch, Jacques. “Une Vie en équilibre.” Marie Marvingt biographical file. Musée de l'Air et l'Espace, Le Bourget, France. Publication and date unknown.

Brett, R. Dallas.
History of British Aviation, 1908—1914.
Air Surbiton, Surrey, England: Research Publications with Kristall Productions, 1988.

Brown, Don.
Ruth Law Thrills a Nation.
New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1993.

Bryant, Alys McKey. “Flying as It Was.”
Sportsman Pilot,
November 15, 1940.

Buchanan, Lamont.
The Flying Years.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1953.

Butler, Ann. “She Lived to Fly.”
The Pittsburgh Press Roto,
October 6, 1974.

Clifford, W. K. “A Letter from London.”
Saturday Review of Literature,
May 1, 1926.

Commission Histoire, Arts et Lettres de l'Aéro Club de France.
Cent ans avec l'Aéro Club de France.
Paris: Commission Histoire, Arts et Lettres de l'Aéro Club de France, 1998.

Daurat, Michel. “Marie Marvingt, demeure toujours la fiancée du danger.” Unidentifed article. Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace biographical file.

Dent, Penelope. “Interlopers with Lipstick.”
Aeroplane Monthly,
April 1997.

Dinand, R. “Mlle. Marvingt lance un défi mondial.”
Le Figaro,
December 16, 1963.

Dodds, Ron. “When the Canadians Took Over U.S. Flying Schools.”
Flight,
February 1969.

Durkota, Alan.
Imperial Russian Air Service.
Mountain View, Calif.: Flying Machines Press, 1995.

Dutrieu, Hélène. “Je bats les records feminins.” Biographical file. Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Le Bourget, France. Publication and date unknown.

Ellis, Frank H.
Canada's Flying Heritage.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1954.

———.
In Canadian Skies.
Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1959.

Farman, Henry, and Dick Farman.
The Aviator's Companion.
London: Mills and Boon, 1910.

Federal Aviation Administration.
Administrators Fact Book
(April 2001). Washington, D.C.: FAA.

Freeman, J. W. “First Ladies of the Air.”
FAA Aviation News,
March 17, 1988.