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This collection consists of one 8 x 10 inch humorously posed photograph of United Air Lines flight attendants Marcelline Amelia Garvis and Ruby Reykalin, as well as three additional photographs and two undated news clippings relating to Garvis.
Marcelline Amelia Garvis (1910--2001) was a registered nurse and an early flight attendant for United Air Lines. Garvis graduated from Cook County School of Nursing in Chicago, Illinois in 1933 and was selected as a flight attendant for United Air Lines in 1934. During her time with United, Ms. Garvis was frequently selected for public appearances and promotional work including being interviewed and/or photographed for numerous news pieces. Garvis also frequently did speaking engagements, including serving along with other flight attendants as featured speakers at the closing banquet of the First National Aircraft Production meeting (held in Los Angeles in 1936 by the Society of Automotive Engineers along with the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce and the Air Transport Association of America). Garvis also presented at a symposium on employer-employee relations sponsored by the Business and Professional Women's Club in Alameda, California in 1938 and staffed a booth at the 1939--40 Golden Gate International Exposition, a World's Fair celebration held in San Francisco, California. Garvis left United Air Lines in 1940 to marry.
NASM.2019.0053
United Air Lines, Inc.
Circa 1939 to 1940
Kevin Dowling, Gift, 2019, NASM.2019.0053.
0.01 Cubic feet (1 folder)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection consists of one 8 x 10 inch humorously posed photograph of United Air Lines flight attendants Marcelline Amelia Garvis and Ruby Reykalin, both in uniform, beside an aircraft wearing feathery wings. Garvis is pretending to "clip" one of Reykalin's wings with large scissors and one has already been removed as part of a mock ceremony after they resigned to get married. In September 2022, three additional photographs and two undated news clippings were added to this collection. One clipping shows Marcelline Amelia Garvis modeling a new United Air Lines flight attendant uniform, and the second clipping details Garvis' talk on her career at the "Tuesday Luncheon Club" and notes that she was the first woman ever to do so. The additional photographs consist of a portrait of Garvis in uniform, and photographs of her at work assisting family members to board a United Air Lines aircraft.
This collection is in original order.
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United Air Lines Flight Attendant Photographs [Marcelline Amelia Garvis], NASM.2019.0053, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics
Airlines
Flight attendants
Women in aeronautics
Photographs
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Newspaper clippings