George B. "Slim" Purington Photo Album

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a photograph album created by George Byron "Slim" Purington in the early 1900s. The photographs in the album depict a number of early aviators and a variety of early aircraft. Photographs were taken in and around North Island, as well as at various airshows and exhibitions in the midwestern and western United States. In addition, there are photographs in the album depicting various crash sites and recovery of damaged aircraft from land and water, as well as several pages of photographs pertaining to the crash that killed Cromwell Dixon, Jr. at the Spokane Interstate Fair in 1911. There are also photographs in the album of ships, sailboats, and trains. Aircraft shown in the album include the Curtiss Model D; Curtiss Beachey Tractor; Curtiss Hydro, Original; Curtiss Model E Hydro Headless; Curtiss Flying-Boat No.1; Curtiss Flying Boat No.2 "The Flying Fish"; Curtiss Model M (Morris) Boat; Curtiss F Boat; Curtiss Tractor Hydro; Curtiss Hydro Triplane; Curtiss A-1 (AH-1); Aerial Experiment Association Aerodrome No 4 Silver Dart; and the Curtiss G (Army 1913 Tractor). Besides Purington himself, notable figures in aviation shown in the album include Castle W. Shaffer ("Lucky Bob St. Henry"); John D. Cooper; Frank J. Bell; Hugh Armstrong Robinson; James J. "Jimmie" Ward; Julia E. Clark; Frank J. Terrill; Holden Chester "Dick" Richardson; Theodore Gordon "Spuds" Ellyson; Terah T. Maroney; John W. McClaskey; John Lansing Callan; Man Mohan Singh; Glenn Hammond Curtiss; Charles Francis Walsh; Beckwith Havens; Carl T. Sjolander; Lincoln Beachey; John A. D. McCurdy; Floyd E. Barlow; and Arthur F. Lym (Arthur Fook Yuen Lyn, Lin Fuyuan, Art Lin, Lim Fook Yin).

Arrangement

Collection is a single item.

Biographical / Historical

George Byron "Slim" Purington was chief mechanic for Curtiss at the North Island Aviation Camp in San Diego, California. Prior to working for Curtiss, Purington had been an engineer for the Tecopa Railroad Company which ran between mines in Nevada and California. In addition to his work at North Island, Purington was sent by Curtiss as part of a delegation to Russia relating to the sale of Curtiss K flying boats and was there from 1916 to 1917. The contents of the scrapbook in this collection suggest that Purington also traveled to some extent in the midwestern and western United States with the Curtiss Exhibition Company.