Pioneering Female Aviators
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In 1911, Harriet Quimby became the first woman in the United States to earn a pilot’s license – just eight years after the Wright brothers’ first flight. Even before women had the right to vote, female aviators were proving that they had the intelligence, strength and courage to conquer the sky. Although many of the women highlighted in this set are relatively unknown today, each made her own significant contribution to early aviation.
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Harriet Quimby Cranking the Motor of Her Moisant Monoplane, circa 1911
Harriet Quimby became the first American woman to earn a pilot's license in August 1911, and the first woman to fly the English Channel in April 1912. With her trademark purple satin flying suit, Quimby brought a mix of showmanship and skill to her work. She died in an airplane accident near Boston in July 1912, but her influence was lasting.
View ArtifactMaryse Bastie Sets a New World Record for Women, for Continuous Flight, July 30, 1929
Following her marriage to a military pilot, Maryse Bastie earned her own pilot's license and began aerobatic flying in her native France. Bastie was rewarded for her skill in 1931 with the Harmon Trophy, an international prize given to the world's outstanding aviator. After serving in France's air force during World War II, Bastie died in a 1952 plane crash.
View ArtifactPortrait of Lillian Boyer, Aerial Stunt Performer, circa 1922
Would you climb out on the wing of an airplane? In 1921, Lillian Boyer did after only her second time in the air. This fearless decision led her to become a wing walker, performing death-defying aerial feats. She hung by her teeth, ankles, and toes. She balanced on her head. She even changed planes in midair. Her stunts garnered headlines wherever she performed.
View ArtifactAir Show Poster, Miss Lillian Boyer, "Empress of the Air," 1926
Would you climb out on the wing of an airplane? In 1921, Lillian Boyer did after only her second time in the air. This fearless decision led her to become a wing walker, performing death-defying aerial feats. She hung by her teeth, ankles, and toes. She balanced on her head. She even changed planes in midair. Her stunts garnered headlines wherever she performed.
View ArtifactLillian Boyer Performing Stunts with an Airplane in Flight, circa 1922
Would you climb out on the wing of an airplane? In 1921, Lillian Boyer did after only her second time in the air. This fearless decision led her to become a wing walker, performing death-defying aerial feats. She hung by her teeth, ankles, and toes. She balanced on her head. She even changed planes in midair. Her stunts garnered headlines wherever she performed.
View ArtifactAlys McKey Bryant on the Day She Made the First Flight by a Woman in Canada, July 31, 1913
Alys McKey Bryant's career began in 1912 when she answered a want ad for a "young lady to learn to fly for exhibition purposes." On July 31, 1913, the American became the first woman to fly in Canada. Just six days later, Bryant's husband and fellow pilot died in an airplane crash. She largely retired from flying after the accident.
View ArtifactStatement from Alys McKey Bryant in 1938, 25th Anniversary of the First Flight by a Woman in Canada
American Alys McKey Bryant became the first woman to fly in Canada on July 31, 1913. Six days later, her husband and fellow pilot was killed in a crash. In this poignant statement on the 25th anniversary of her Canadian flight, Bryant states that she never lost her love for aviation despite it taking "everything but my own life."
View ArtifactLady Mary Heath and William Brock, National Air Races, Cleveland, Ohio, 1929
Irish pilot Mary, Lady Heath, was a champion athlete before earning her commercial pilot's license in 1927 -- the first woman in Ireland or Great Britain to do so. In 1928 she made headlines flying solo from Cape Town, South Africa, to London. Lady Heath never fully recovered from a crash she suffered at the 1929 National Air Races in Cleveland.
View ArtifactLady Mary Heath Lands a Royal Dutch Airliner at Croydon Airport, 1928
In 1927 Mary, Lady Heath, became the first woman in Ireland or Great Britain to earn a commercial pilot's license. It allowed her to fly passenger aircraft like the Royal Dutch airliner she is seen here landing at London's Croydon Airport. A 1929 crash in Cleveland impaired her health, and Lady Heath died from an apparent blood clot in 1939.
View ArtifactNew York Times Rotogravure Page for June 5, 1932, Showing Amelia Earhart in England after Her Solo Transatlantic Flight
Amelia Earhart made world headlines again in 1932 when she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The flight from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Culmore, Northern Ireland, took Earhart 14 hours, 56 minutes in her Lockheed Vega. The press dubbed Earhart "Lady Lindy," and indeed her fame as a pilot was second only to Charles Lindbergh's.
View ArtifactAmelia Earhart in the Avro-Avian Biplane Received from Lady Heath, 1928
World-renowned Irish pilot Mary, Lady Heath, was an inspiration to Amelia Earhart. After Lady Heath took Earhart for a flight in her Avro Avian biplane, which Heath had flown solo from South Africa to Great Britain, Earhart was so impressed that she bought the aircraft and shipped it back to the United States. Soon Earhart's own fame eclipsed Lady Heath's.
View ArtifactRuth Elder at Mrs. Mackey's Home, Horte, Azores, October 1927
Ruth Elder fell short of her goal to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic in 1927, but the public loved her just the same. She competed in the 1929 Women's Air Derby and parlayed her aviation fame into a modest film career. Elder was fondly remembered as the "Miss America of the Air" when she died in 1977.
View ArtifactEddie Stinson, Ruth Elder and Henry Ford, February 1928
Pilot Ruth Elder posed with Eddie Stinson and Henry Ford for this February 1928 photograph. Four months earlier, Elder made an unsuccessful attempt to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in American Girl, a Stinson Detroiter airplane built by Eddie Stinson's company. Henry Ford had his own aircraft division building Ford Tri-Motors at the time.
View ArtifactRuth Elder's "American Girl" Plane on a Test Flight at Curtiss Field, October 1927
Ruth Elder planned to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. On October 11, 1927, Elder and co-pilot George Haldeman took off in their Stinson Detroiter American Girl. An oil leak forced them to ditch in the ocean some 360 miles short of land. Still, the 2,623 miles Elder covered set a new distance record for a female pilot.
View ArtifactFlight Instructor Barbara Kibbee, Civilian Pilot Training Program, November 21, 1939
Barbara Kibbee started flying in 1937, earned a commercial rating, and took a job as a check pilot for the Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego. As the looming war created a need for trained flyers, Kibbee joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program as an instructor based at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She was the program's first female instructor.
View ArtifactFlight Instructor Barbara Kibbee, Civilian Pilot Training Program, November 21, 1939
Barbara Kibbee started flying in 1937, earned a commercial rating, and took a job as a check pilot for the Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego. As the looming war created a need for trained flyers, Kibbee joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program as an instructor based at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She was the program's first female instructor.
View ArtifactAir Pilot Ruth Law, circa 1915
Ruth Law earned her pilot's license in 1912 and soon developed a taste for aerobatics and record breaking. In 1916 she flew 590 nonstop miles from Chicago to the state of New York. During World War I, Law argued unsuccessfully for women to fly in combat roles. Law continued to set records until she retired from flying in 1922.
View ArtifactRuth Law in Wright B Flyer, circa 1916
Ruth Law earned her pilot's license in 1912 and soon developed a taste for aerobatics and record breaking. In 1916 she flew 590 nonstop miles from Chicago to the state of New York. During World War I, Law argued unsuccessfully for women to fly in combat roles. Law continued to set records until she retired from flying in 1922.
View ArtifactElinor Smith, New Woman's Endurance Flight Record Holder, 1929
Elinor Smith took her first flight at age six and earned a pilot's license at 16. She made headlines flying under New York City bridges in 1928, but more serious pursuits earned Smith a series of endurance, speed, and altitude records for a female pilot. Smith piloted an airplane for the last time in 2001, at the age of 89.
View ArtifactElinor Smith during her Record Woman's Endurance Flight, 1929
Amelia Earhart may have been better known by the public, but fellow aviators voted Elinor Smith "Best Female Pilot" in 1930. Smith, who set a series of endurance, speed, and altitude records for a female pilot, was not without fame. In 1934 she became the first woman to appear on a Wheaties box. The press dubbed her the "Flying Flapper."
View ArtifactKatherine Stinson and Biplane before Transcontinental Flight, "It's a Long, Long Way To 'Frisco," 1912
Petite Katherine Stinson looked younger than her 21 years when she earned her pilot's license in 1912. The press dubbed her the "Flying Schoolgirl." But Stinson was among the best exhibition flyers of the pre-World War I era. The "tractor" mentioned in the caption is her airplane. Planes with propellers in front of their engines are called tractors, as opposed to rear-propeller pushers.
View ArtifactClothing Advertisement Featuring Katherine Stinson, "Child Aviatrice Granted License," circa 1913
Despite her petite stature, Katherine Stinson was among the most skilled exhibition pilots in the world in the 1910s. The press dubbed her the "Flying Schoolgirl," and audiences were wowed by her abilities. This advertisement played loose with the facts -- Stinson was born in 1891 and earned her pilot's license in 1912, when she was 21 years old.
View ArtifactPage from May 13, 1928 Detroit News, "Those Crazy Stinsons--Fliers Four"
The Stinson family of San Antonio, Texas, produced four notable pilots. Katherine Stinson earned her license in 1912 and became one of the country's top stunt flyers. Her sister, Marjorie, earned a license in 1914 and trained fighter pilots at the Stinson family's school during World War I. Brothers Jack and Eddie founded the Stinson Aircraft Company in 1920.
View ArtifactFirst Meeting of the "Early Birds" Group of Aviation Pioneers, December 17, 1928
The "Early Birds," a group of pilots who started flying in the first ten years after the airplane's invention, met in 1928 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Wright brothers' historic 1903 flight. Marjorie Stinson represented pioneering female aviators. Stinson flew in early exhibitions and, at her family's flying school, trained pilots for the Allied Powers during World War I.
View ArtifactAir Pilot Louise McPhetridge Thaden, Holder of the Women's Altitude Record, 1928
Louise Thaden earned her pilot's license in 1928 while working in sales for Travel Air Corporation. Thaden set the women's altitude record that December at 20,260 feet. She won the inaugural Women's Air Derby in 1929. At the 1936 Bendix Transcontinental Race -- the first in which women were allowed to compete against men -- Thaden and co-pilot Blanche Noyes took first place.
View ArtifactMary E. Von Mach Inspects Pratt & Whitney Engines While Working at the Willow Run Bomber Plant, November 30, 1942
Mary E. Von Mach was Michigan's first licensed female pilot, earning her certificate in 1929. During World War II, Von Mach oversaw final inspection of the Pratt & Whitney engines installed in B-24 bomber airplanes at Ford's Willow Run plant. She was a charter member of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization that supported the work of women in aviation.
View ArtifactMary E. Von Mach Inspects Pratt & Whitney Engines While Working at the Willow Run Bomber Plant, November 30, 1942
Mary E. Von Mach was Michigan's first licensed female pilot, earning her certificate in 1929. During World War II, Von Mach oversaw final inspection of the Pratt & Whitney engines installed in B-24 bomber airplanes at Ford's Willow Run plant. She was a charter member of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization that supported the work of women in aviation.
View ArtifactAmelia Earhart with Fellow Pilots Competing at the First Women's Air Derby, August 1929
The inaugural Women's Air Derby of 1929 was the first all-female air race in the United States. Most of the 20 competitors suffered some misfortune during the race from Santa Monica to Cleveland, but none was worse than the accident that claimed Marvel Crosson's life. Louise Thaden won the event with a time of 20 hours, 19 minutes, 4 seconds.
View ArtifactFord Tri-Motor Airplane Advertisement, "When Women Fly," 1929
Ford Motor Company celebrated the contributions of women to flight in this earnest, if somewhat condescending, advertisement for Ford Tri-Motor airplanes. The women mentioned by name -- Katharine Wright, Matilde Moisant, Ruth Law, Katherine Stinson -- all made important contributions to early aviation. By traveling as passengers, Ford suggested, other women helped ensure that the young airline industry thrived.
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