United States Women in Aviation 1930-1939

Abstract

In the 1930s, aviation was a very visible and exciting aspect of life and culture in the United States. The names of aerial explorers and record-setting air racers were headline news and household words. Women pilots were very much a part of the aviation community. Amelia Earhart defined for the decade what women pilots were trying to prove: Flying is safe, and women make good pilots. This publication presents some of the women who were working to prove this dual message. Photographs, documents, newspaper accounts, and magazine articles held by the library of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, provide the nucleus of the study.