Search Results

1. L'Aerophile collection, 1876-1949

   152 boxes. 15,000 items. -- Science Section, Researcher Engagement and General Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Correspondence, blueprints and manufactures information for early French and foreign aircraft and dirigibles, reports of accidents involving flyers and balloonists, World War I aerial photographs and intelligence reports, a series of French cartoons, drawings, graphs, charts, diagrams of equipment, maps, newspapers, printed material, and photographs. The materials in the collection were evidently assembled by staff of the magazine L’Aerophile which was published by Georges Besançon in collaboration with Union Aérophile de France. Subjects include aeronautics chiefly in Europe and the U.S., aeronautics corporations, air shows, aviators, balloons, bombs and missiles, commercial airlines, dirigibles, gliders, hydroplanes, medical aviation, military aeronautics, model aircraft, parachutes, propellers, record flights, and research and testing of aircraft. Individuals represented include Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold, Georges Besançon, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and William "Billy" Mitchell.

2. Aero Club of America scrapbooks, 1891-1912

   6 items. 6 containers. 1 linear feet. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Aeronautical organization. Scrapbooks of newspaper clippings relating to the advent of manned flight.

3. Charles W. Sirch papers, 1878-1935

   100 items. 1 container plus 1 oversize. 0.2 linear feet. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Aeronautical engineer and airship designer. Chiefly correspondence with Washington Irving Chambers relating to Sirch's design for a military dirigible.

4. Ray Eber Brown papers, 1915-1962

   23,000 items. 77 containers plus 5 oversize. 36 linear feet. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Naval architect and engineer. Correspondence, memoranda, diaries, notebooks, subject files, reports, articles, blueprints, charts, graphs, specification sheets, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other printed material pertaining primarily to Brown's career as a naval architect and marine engineer.

   Please note:

   Some or all content stored offsite.

5. Oskar Ursinus papers, 1908-1943

   4,500 items. 14 containers. 6 linear feet. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Aviator, engineer, and journalist. Correspondence, notes, articles by Ursinus and others, charts, maps, sketches, blueprints, photographs, printed matter, and clippings relating to the development of German aeronautics during the first half of the twentieth century.

6. Washington Irving Chambers papers, 1871-1943

   12,000 items. 48 containers. 12 linear feet. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Naval officer. Correspondence, subject files, logbooks, memoranda, blueprints, photographs, printed matter, and other papers relating primarily to Chambers's service in the navy and with the Greely Relief Expedition to the Arctic and the Nicaragua Canal survey expedition of 1884-1885.

7. John Toland papers, 1944-1965

   8,150 items. 110 containers plus 1 oversize. 56 linear feet. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Author and historian. Correspondence, notes, interviews, military reports, reminiscences, maps, photographs, and wide ranging production material, including drafts, galleys, and proofs, of Toland's books on World War II and gangsterism in the 1930s.

   Please note:

   Some or all content stored offsite.

8. Piccard family papers, circa 1470-1983

   73,000 items. 204 containers plus 1 oversize. 82 linear feet. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Family members represented include Jean Felix Piccard (1884-1963), his wife, Jeannette Ridlon Piccard (1895-1981), and their son, Don Piccard (1926- ). Correspondence, memoranda, diaries, journals, logbooks, drafts of writings and speeches, reports, notes, financial papers, biographical and genealogical material, scrapbooks, blueprints, patent specifications and other papers documenting the careers of Piccard family members in the fields of aeronautics, ballooning, bathyscaphe exploration, chemistry, education, the Episcopal church, and stratospheric exploration.

   Please note:

   Some or all content stored offsite.

9. Tissandier collection on the history of aeronautics, 1539-1929

   8,000 items. 27 containers plus 19 oversize. 14 linear feet. -- Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Collection of items gathered by Gaston Tissandier, an aeronaut and scientist, with additions by his brother, Albert Tissandier, an artist and aeronaut, and his son, Paul Tissandier, also an aeronaut. Includes the collection of J. F. Dupuis-Delcourt, an airship builder, brought together prior to 1860 and later purchased by Gaston Tissandier. Mostly in French, the collection pertains primarily to balloon flights of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but also includes material concerning early heavier-than-air flight and the aeronautical career of Gaston and Albert Tissandier as well as art work of Albert Tissandier.