Ruth Law Collection
1912-1963
Ruth Law was the third American woman to earn her pilot's license. The Ruth Law Collection chronicles her aviation career with most materials dating from 1916 to 1919. The largest part of the collection is a scrapbook, with additional loose materials, containing the following types of items: photographs; newspaper clippings; correspondence; magazine articles; programs; and ribbons.
Ruth Law and Doris Hayes Photograph and Certificate
Ruth Law (1891-1970) was the first woman to loop the loop, the first person to fly a plane at night and a one-time holder of the Chicago to New York aerial speed record. After World War I, Law was active in the "Ruth Law Flying Circus," a three-plane troupe that traveled to state and county fairs. This collection consists of a photograph of aviator Ruth Law and her passenger Doris Hayes sitting in Law's aircraft. There is also a "Certificate of Flight," signed by Law, which certifies that Hayes was her passenger in Seabreeze, Florida, on February 21, 1916.
Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation Collection
This collection consists of two cubic feet of research material gathered for Eileen F. Lebow's book, Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation. The research material was gathered from a variety of repositories, and consists mostly of copies of newspaper articles and photographs.
Leslie A. A. Benson Collection
This collection consists mostly of photographs of AEF aircraft and crews on the field, with photos both loose and in a scrapbook. Documents and unit patches are also to be found in these materials. Folder 1: Includes Benson's AEF identity card, a clipping and photo of Benson, seemingly taken from a scrapbook, and various photographs of World War I aircraft such as the DH-4 and Salmson 2, along with crews. Each image in this folder is accompanied by a 4x5" negative. Folder 2: Approximately 50 loose photographs of various sizes of World War I units and their air crews on the field. Folder 3: Documentary materials (approximately 40 pages) including letters of recommendation, an officer's record book, sugar permit, and discharge certificate. Folder 4: Photo album commemorating AEF members (approximately 50 photos). Endpapers have various uniform insignia affixed, both that of the Allied forces and of the Central Powers. Note: Folder 4 includes small 1 3/4x2 3/4" photo of Ruth Law beside wing strut, in uniform.
Increase Robinson photographs
Nine photographs (1919-1920), primarily of Robinson and Lemos family members, and a page from the 1909 Hyde Park High School Annual.
United States Women in Aviation through World War I
bulk 1904-1920
This collection consists of research material used by National Air and Space Curator Claudia Oakes to prepare the publication United States Women in Aviation through World War I (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978).
Ruth Barnes film and photographs
2 Film reels (8 mm.)
Photographs and film taken by Ruth Barnes in Somalia and Kenya during her assignment in Somalia with the U.S. Information Agency from 1969 to 1971.
Oral history interview with Mansfield Bascom and Ruth Esherick Bascom about Wharton Esherick
Polsky, Richard
Bascom, Ruth Esherick
An interview of Ruth and Mansfield Bascom concerning artist Wharton Esherick, conducted 1990 July 13, by Richard Polsky, for the Archives of American Art Philadelphia Project.
Signal Corps Photographs
This collection contains two groups of photographs. The first group, mounted on pages removed from a photo album, contains views of aircraft and facilities at the United States Army Air Service Fairfield Intermediate Air Depot, Fairfield, Ohio, circa 1921. The second group consists of loose photographs of aircraft, most of which are historic views of early Aerial Experiment Association and Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company aircraft by photographer Harry M. Benner.
Ruth Nickerson papers
bulk 1930s-1997
The papers of sculptor and WPA artist Ruth Nickerson measure 3 linear feet and date from circa 1924-1997 and 2005, 2009. Included are personal resumes and professional summaries, as well as sculpture awards and honors; letters from artists and art administrators, correspondence with foundries and art organizations, the Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture, and the Section of Fine Arts. Letters from Ruth Nickerson to her mother Kate Mary Nickerson and copies of outgoing letters from Nickerson to other are also includeds; writings, including typescripts of manuscripts and unpublished talks; files regarding Guggenheim Fellowships; Nickerson's cast stone formulas; photographs of works in progress; artwork consisting of watercolor studies for American Oriental Rug Weaving (sculpture panel) for the US Post Office, Leaksville, North Carolina, 1941, and handmade Christmas cards; and printed material including exhibition catalogs and newspaper clippings. Also included is an unpublished memoir The Stone Carver in the House, by Nickerson's daughter Elizabeth R. Knudsen, 2005.
