Janet Harmon Bragg Photographs

Scope and Contents

Janet Waterford Bragg (1907-1993), became one of America's first black women pilots after enrolling in the Curtiss Wright Aeronautical School in 1933. There she helped form the Challenger Air Pilots Association, which later evolved into the Coffey School of Aeronautics. Bragg's career in aviation was made in spite of discrimination, of both her gender and her race. As a woman, she was initially denied a commercial license, after passing the flight test at the Tuskegee pilot training school. As a person of color, Bragg was denied entry into the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) program. An active pilot for thirty-five years, Bragg focused her considerable abilities on promoting aviation careers for African Americans.

Biographical / Historical

This collection consists of images collected by Smithsonian Institution Press for the book Soaring above Setbacks: The Autobiography of Janet Harmon Bragg, African American Aviator, as told to Marjorie M. Kriz. These include twenty-one black and white five by seven inch photographs, two color photographs, two color slides and five strips of black and white negatives, relating to the early career and to later celebrations of the accomplishments of Janet Harmon Bragg. Also included are images of Ida Van Smith and Clyde Hampton.