This post was authored by Marcella Stranieri, librarian with the Researcher Experience Section.
Humans have been experimenting with, building, and using flying machines for centuries, yet, unlike men, women have largely been excluded from the historical records of early flight. Some of the earliest, most courageous aviators in the field of aeronautics were women. Many of these early flyers were documented in L’Aérophile, a French flying magazine, founded in 1893, whose technical and illustrative archives are part of the Science Section’s collection and can be requested in the Library’s Science and Business Reading Room. While most of the people covered in the magazine and represented in its archives are men, there are a handful of French, Italian, and American women present in its pages who were some of the world’s first pilots, engineers, balloonists, and passengers.
A few of the women represented in the collection include Lena Bernstein, the first woman to fly across the Mediterranean Sea; Madeleine Charnaux, who set several flying records; Helene Dutreiu, the “Girl-Hawk” of aviation and the only female pilot that patrolled over Paris during WWI, protecting against German invasion; and Helen Richey, the first woman to be hired by a commercial airline in the US. The collection also features 21 photos of Amelia Earhart, the famed pilot who attempted to circumnavigate the globe. The archive includes photos of other women, such as Carmen Damedoz, Viviane Elder, Margaret Spitzer, Maryse Bastie, Marcelle Choisnet, Edna Newcomer, Elinor Smith, Ruth Elder, and many others who were all early aviators and ultimately instrumental in advancing the field of aeronautics.
These aviators were brave; not only did these women face adversity and stigma because of their sex, they also faced practical danger, as early flight was perilous, challenging, and for the most part, a complete unknown. Crashes and mid-air collisions were somewhat common; engineers were still developing the proper tools and technology for building the planes, and there was no regulation whatsoever until 1926 when the Air Commerce Act was passed, enforcing safety checks.
If you would like to learn more about early aviation and the women who shaped it, please visit the Science & Business Reading Room and spend some time with the L’Aérophile collection!
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