Velma Maul Tanzer Scrapbook

This collection consists of Velma Maul Tanzer's scrapbook which documents her career as flight attendant with American Airlines, 1933-1936.

Velma Maul Tanzer (1911-1990) was born in Alton, IL. She attended high school in Burlington, IA and received nurses' training at Chicago's Jackson Park Hospital in 1933. Later that year, Tanzer joined American Airways as one of its first four stewardesses, rising to the level of chief stewardess. She remained with the company until 1936, and then went to work for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Los Angeles as a visiting nurse. After her stint with Metropolitan Life, she became a nursing supervisor at Frances Shimer Junior College in Mount Carroll, IL. In 1942, Tanzer joined the Army Nurse Corps with the rank of Second Lieutenant. She was assigned to Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham City, UT, where she met Radford Tanzer, a plastic surgeon who she married in December of 1943. Velma Maul Tanzer was assigned to the 104th Evacuation Hospital in Bend, Oregon, before being transferred to England in 1944 and serving one year in the European Theater. In 1946, the Tanzers were released from military duty and moved to Hanover, New Hampshire. Velma Maul Tanzer was a member of the American Airlines Kiwi Club.