Early Women Aviators in Print, Press Photography, and Certification, 1910-1970s

Amelia Earhart Margaret Nixon Mary Worthylake

Archive

[Aviation] [Women's Employment] Women’s aviation mixed archive spanning 1910 to 1978, documenting how female aviators entered public view through early parachute imagery, press photography, formal licensing, and later commemorative print culture. Notably, the 1930 British Empire aviator’s certificate issued to Beatrice Garvan Sheridan and the 1932 Associated Press photograph of Amelia Earhart at a London dinner of the Royal Aeronautical Society, where the typed verso explicitly identifies her as both the first woman to fly the Atlantic and the first woman guest at that event. Placed beside an earlier parachute photograph centered on a woman in an aviator’s cap and a later signed letter from Alaska Ninety Nines member Mary Worthylake, the group documents women entering aviation through licensing, public spectacle, and elite institutions that had been built almost entirely for men.
Archive of 5 items spanning London, New York, and Woodburn, Oregon, including 3 original photographs, 1 aviator’s certificate, and 1 typed letter signed, circa 1910-1978, all documenting the early women of aviation and the public and institutional record of female flight; materials range in size from 3 x 4 inches to 7 x 11 inches.
[1] Unidentified parachute photograph. Circa 1910. Original black and white photograph showing two men and one woman outdoors with a parachute; the woman stands forward at center wearing an aviator’s cap, while the men hold parachute fabric at either side. The image appears to predate the First World War and documents an early moment in parachute exhibition or demonstration culture, before women’s participation in aerial descent had become widely standardized through commercial and military aviation.
[2] Federation Aeronautique Internationale. British Empire. Aviator’s Certificate. August 6, 1930. Folded certificate booklet issued to Beatrice Garvan Sheridan of Sydney, Australia, with mounted portrait photograph, embossed stamp, serial number, and three manuscript signatures. The interior identifies the issuing authority and records Sheridan’s qualification under British Empire aviation structures, preserving direct evidence of a woman’s formal entry into licensed flight at an early stage in civil aviation.
[3] Associated Press photograph, “Miss Earhart at Royal Society Dinner.” From New York, June 3, 1932. Press photograph with typed verso caption identifying Amelia Earhart as “the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean,” further noting that she was photographed in London when she was the guest, and “the first woman guest,” of the Royal Aeronautical Society, with Lord Londonderry at her right. The image shows Earhart seated at the center of a formal dinner gathering surrounded by 23 men, making the gendered exclusivity of the event visible in the photograph itself.
[4] Press photograph of Margaret Nixon. Circa 1930s. Original portrait photograph showing Nixon smiling in flight gear with goggles and parachute harness visible; the verso caption reads, “Going up to the clouds is fun on a hot day, says Margaret Nixon.” The photograph belongs to the news and feature-photo culture that turned female aviators into recognizable public figures through reproducible, captioned portraiture.
[5] Worthylake, Mary. Typed letter signed to “Harry ‘The Bookie.’” Woodburn, Oregon, October 31, 1978. One-page typed letter on personal stationery signed in blue ink, discussing the sale and wholesale terms of Worthylake’s aviation book and mentioning aviation circles in Oregon, Washington, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. Worthylake writes, “I retail my book for $4.95, plus postage if I have to mail it. I can wholesale it, in lots of at least ten,” later adding, “That gives you a 40% profit in retailing,” and closing, “Happy landings,” linking the letter to the afterlife of women’s aviation through regional memory, print circulation, and the networks of the Ninety Nines.
Women’s aviation was not recorded in one form alone but through overlapping systems of recognition: news syndication, elite aeronautical institutions, licensing authorities, and later veteran print culture. Minor wear, toning, and creasing across the group; certificate booklet rubbed at exterior; photographs with expected handling wear and caption remnants on versos; letter folded and lightly stained, signature clear. Overall good condition. Earhart’s presence as the only woman visible in the 1932 dinner photograph, Sheridan’s credential booklet with official seals and signatures, and the captioned Nixon portrait all preserve different stages in the public legibility of female aviators, while the Worthylake letter extends that record into the late twentieth century through women-led aviation memory and book distribution.

Item #23131

Price: $885.00