Published: 1906
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Introducing the topic of women in aviation, Deborah G. Douglas writes: "There are painful stories of discrimination based on class and race as well as gender. But there are also the triumphant stories of fabulous accomplishment" (p. 1). The sixteen special collections from the National Air and Space Museum gathered here document both the tragedies and the triumphs of women pilots, parachutists, flight instructors, mechanics, engineers, designers, production workers, flight attendants, and institution builders, from the balloon age to the era of space travel. The comprehensiveness of this group of collections is based on the research materials of the authors of two major studies of women and flight published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 1978 and 1990. The first, by Claudia M. Oakes, documents in great detail the earliest and most important "firsts" by women in heavier-than-air flight and records the experiences of several dozen women who opened the way for female participation in both civilian and military aviation. Included here are early pioneers whose route to the air was performance, such as Carlotta the Lady Aeronaut, as well those, like Ruth Law, who battled their way into some kind of official service for the Red Cross or Liberty Loan campaigns during World War I. The research materials for the study of the period 1940-1985 by Deborah G. Douglas document the radical expansion of female participation in all aspects of aviation-in industry, in the commercial business world, and in the U.S. military.