Major James Parton Transparencies

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of one 5 x 7 inch and two 6 x 8 inch color transparencies, all formal studio portrait photographs of Major James Parton, United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), in uniform, taken at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF, location code name "Widewing"), Bushy Park, London, England, 1943. In two of the photographs, Parton (age 31), assigned to the Eighth Air Force, can be seen wearing the lapel insignia of Aide-de-Camp to Major General Ira C. Eaker, Commanding General, VIII Bomber Command.

Arrangement

Collection is in original 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 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 (1948-1949) and promotional director of the (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, . Parton died April 20, 2001, in White River Junction, Vermont, at the age of 88.