James Parton Photographs

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 31 black and white photographs documenting Parton's involvement with the Allied Air Forces and touching on his pre- and post-WWII editorial career.

Arrangement

Photographs are in original order.

In 1986, the photographs were copied and assigned Smithsonian Institution negative numbers SI 86-5660 to 86-5690. In 1990, all items in this collection were reproduced in the same order on the second side (Side B) of , a LaserDisc CAV format 12-inch (30 cm) optical disc published by the Smithsonian Institution. Print numbers applied during videodisc production are used as item-level image numbers (print numbers NASM 7B05427 to 7B05458, videodisc frame capture numbers VD-7B05427 to VD-7B05458) and the images are stored in videodisc number order.

Biographical / Historical

James Parton was born December 10, 1912, in Newburyport, Massachusetts; he attended Harvard University. From 1935 to 1942, Parton held various editorial and management positions with Time magazine, including aviation editor. During World War II, Parton served in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) as Aide-de-Camp to General Ira C. Eaker of the VIII Bomber Command, Eighth Air Force, and as Chief Air Historian of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (MAAF). After the war, Parton resumed his journalism career as as promotional and editorial director of Time-Life International (1945-1947), editor and publisher of the Los Angeles Independent (1948-1949) and promotional director of the New York Herald Tribune (1950-1953). Parton was also a founder and president of the American Heritage Publishing Company (1954-1970), and president of the Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corporation (1970-1972). Parton authored a number of publications on the history of the U.S. Air Force, particularly during World War II, and in 1986 wrote a well-received biography of General Eaker, Air Force Spoken Here. Parton died April 20, 2001, in White River Junction, Vermont, at the age of 88.