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 Summary

Phillips Ward Page (1885--1917) was an active early pilot who assisted in the testing and development of some of the early Burgess aircraft, and taught many renowned civilian and military aviators to fly. This collection consists of a scrapbook documenting the aviation career of Phillips Ward Page during the time period from 1911 to 1912.

 Biographical / Historical

Phillips Ward Page (1885--1917) was an active early pilot who assisted in the testing and development of some of the early Burgess aircraft, and taught many renowned civilian and military aviators to fly. As the Aviation Editor of the Boston Herald, Page was a passenger on several flight around Boston and the vicinity in the Spring of 1911. Page joined the Wright Flying School at Dayton, Ohio in July 1911, and obtained his pilot license on October 25, 1911. In November of that year he started carrying passengers and flying exhibitions on weekends, flying around the New York vicinity. He became a full time instructor for the Burgess Company of Marblehead, Massachusetts on Burgess-Wright planes, and for the winter aviation school at Daytona, Florida. Besides his teaching obligations, Page was a contestant in air meets, made test flights of new military tractors, and took the first motion pictures of Boston from the air. In 1914, Page joined the US Aviation Reserves, and enlisted as a Naval Aviator in April 1917. He was an instructor at Squantum, Massachusetts Naval Base, before being assigned to duty in France. He drowned in the English Channel in a seaplane accident on December 17, 1917.

 Identifier

NASM.1990.0037

Creator

Page, Phillips Ward, 1885-1917

Date

1911-1912

Provenance

Dorothy Miller, Gift, 1990, NASM.1990.0037

Extent

0.23 Cubic feet (1 flat box)

Archival Repository

National Air and Space Museum Archives

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a scrapbook documenting the aviation career of Phillips Ward Page during the time period from 1911 to 1912. The scrapbook contains photographs and news clippings. Note: Blank pages in the scrapbook, including many at the end of the book, are not digitally reproduced in the slideshow. Any gaps in numbering are due to their omission.

Arrangement note

Collection is in original order.

Rights

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Restrictions

No restrictions on access

Citation

Phillips Ward Page Scrapbook, NASM.1990.0037, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Topics

Burgess Aircraft Family

Burgess-Wright Aircraft Family

Air pilots

Flight training

Aeronautics, Military

Aeronautics, Commercial -- United States

Aeronautics, Commercial

Aeronautics -- Exhibitions

Aeronautics -- 1903-1916

Aeronautics

Type

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Clippings

Photographs

Scrapbooks