C. G. B. Stuart Photograph Collection

Scope and Contents

Stuart first contacted the National Air Museum (now the National Air and Space Museum) in 1951. In 1959, the Museum purchased the collection and it was given an artifact number. In 1983, the collection was deaccessioned from the Museum's artifact collection and transferred to the Museum's archival files At that point, the collection was separated and placed in specific subject files. There are many photographs in this collection that are currently housed in the technical files and videodisc collection.

Biographical / Historical

C. G. B. Stuart was an aviation collector. By the early 1950s he had amassed several large collections, including a photograph collection consisting of over 30,000 images. This collection consisted of photographs of aircraft from every country in the world, from the Wright Brothers in 1903, until 1959 and was particularly strong in U.S. Army and Navy types, and British, German, and Italian aircraft. According to Stuart, he collected this material: "systematically over the period of 25 years, primarily as a hobby in conjunction with my work. I bought a number of collections of photographs, which enabled this collection to reach its present size and variety, from a number of old-timers who in turn had collected over the period prior to my entering the field."