Scope and Contents

Approx. 1,065 color photographs (chromogenic prints), negatives and slides of rural scenes, mostly in Kansas.

Arrangement

Collection is divided into two series.

Series 1: Photographs

Series 2: Slides

Biographical / Historical

Jean Warren (J. W.) Seele (1924-1993) was born in Topeka, Kansas and studied aeronautics at the Spartan School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He worked for thirty years as an engineering technician at the Kansas Department of Transportation. Photography became a hobby that ultimately allowed him to pursue his interest in aviation. In the mid-1970s, he began to photograph the Kansas countryside.

Related Archival Materials

Jean Warren (J. W.) Seele Aircraft Photography Collection, circa 1950s-1970s

This collection consists of approximately 6000 color slides and over 2000 negatives/prints (a mixture of color and black and white) of civil and military aircraft taken by Seele, circa 1950s-1970s. The shots were taken in the United States, specifically in the Midwest. Aircraft from the following manufacturers are represented: Aero Commander, Arrow, Aeronca, Beechcraft, Bell, Bellanca, Boeing, Bristol, Bucker, Callair, Cessna, Consolidated, Convair, Curtiss, Dassault, de Havilland, Davis, Dart, Douglas, ERCO, Fairchild, Fleet, Ford, Goodyear, Great Lakes, Grumman, Howard, Hawker Siddeley, Hughes, Heinkel, Jodel, Junkers, Lockheed, Ling-Temco-Vought, Lawson, Parsons, Pitts, Pitcarin, Piper, Pazmany, Piaggo, Porterfield, Republic, SAAB, Sikorsky, Stampe, Stearman, Stinson, Swearingen, Taylor, Vickers, and Waco. In June of 2001 the Smitihsonian's Museum of American History transferred an additional shoebox of Seele photography that had been sent directly to them from the widow. This color images included balloon events as well as aircraft shots. The ballooning images are color prints taken mostly around Topeka, Kansas, while the aircraft images are color transparencies of aircraft taken, again, mostly around Topeka.