Wiley Post Scrapbooks

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This collection consists of three scrapbooks on Wiley Post's U.S. Goodwill Tour made following his 1933 solo round the world flight. Wiley Hardeman Post (1898-1935) was an American aviator famed for his record flights, including his solo round the world flight, and for his work in high-altitude flight.

Wiley Hardeman Post (1898-1935) was an American aviator famed for his record flights, including the first solo round the world flight, and for his work in high-altitude flight. Born in Texas, Post worked in the Oklahoma oil fields and performed as a parachute jumper in a barnstorming act, Burrell Tibbs' and His Texas Topnotch Fliers. In 1926, blinded in his left eye in an oil field accident, Post used money received in compensation to buy a Canadian-built Curtiss JN-4 "Canuck" biplane. In 1930, while working as the personal pilot for Oklahoma oilman F.C. Hall, Post raced Hall's aircraft, the Lockheed 5C Vega Winnie Mae, to victory in the 1930 National Air Race Derby from Los Angeles to Chicago. In the following year, Post, with Harold Gatty (1903-1957) serving as navigator, circumnavigated the globe in the Winnie May. After the historic flight, Post bought the Winnie Mae from Hall, and, in 1933, flew the same course solo in a time of seven days, eighteen hours, and forty-nine minutes. Beginning in 1934, Post began experimenting with high altitude flights, and developed the first practical pressure suit with Russell S. Colley of the B.F. Goodrich Company. In 1935, Post planned a long-distance flight to Alaska and Siberia in a hybrid Lockheed Orion-Sirius float plane (Lockheed Model 9-E Orion-Explorer) with humorist Will Rogers. On August 15, 1935, Post's aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Walakpa Lagoon near Point Barrow, Alaska, killing both Post and Rogers.

Identifier

NASM.XXXX.0045

Creator

Post, Wiley, 1898-1935.

Date

1933

Provenance

Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Gift, 1936, XXXX.0045

Extent

1.01 Cubic feet (2 flatboxes)

Archival Repository

National Air and Space Museum Archives

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of three scrapbooks on Wiley Post's U.S. Goodwill Tour made following his 1933 solo round the world flight. Two scrapbooks, identified as S-44-A and S-44C, were dismounted from their binders and were put together at an unknown point. They contain newspaper clippings from the cities Post visited. S-44E is a binder folder of clippings arranged by state, city, and date. Also included are daily tour schedules outlining plans, programs and the VIP guests Post would meet in each city.

Arrangement note

The Wiley Post Scrapbooks Collection consists of three scrapbooks. The scrapbooks were unbound at an unknown date. Original order has been retained.

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

Wiley Post Scrapbooks, Acc. XXXX.0045, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Topics

Aeronautics
Aeronautics -- Exhibitions
Aeronautics -- Records
Flights around the world
Lockheed 5C Vega "Winnie Mae" (2nd Post Vega)

Type

Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Scrapbooks
Clippings

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One museum, two locations

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