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This collection consists of copies of 57 black and white photographs collected by author James Sinclair for use in his book, Wings of Gold: How the Aeroplane Developed New Guinea, Pacific Publications (Sydney), 1978. The collection does not include copies of all photographs used in the book.
Aviation activities in the Territory of Papua, a territory of the British Empire located in the southeastern quarter of the southwest Pacific island of New Guinea, first occurred in the early 1920s, during a period when the territory was administered by the Commonwealth of Australia. Activities increased greatly in 1930, when an airstrip was constructed in the town of Bulolo (Morobe Province) to support gold dredging in the area. Dredging equipment was transported to Bulolo in pieces by air, with the first gold dredge beginning operations on March 21, 1932. James Patrick Sinclair was born in Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, on April 18, 1928. In November 1947, he joined Australia's Department of District Services and Native Affairs, Administration of Papua New Guinea, serving from 1948 to 1957 in many locations as a patrol officer, assistant district officer, deputy district commissioner and district commissioner. Sinclair was the last Australian District Commissioner of the Eastern Highlands District (1969-1974), retiring from civil service in August 1975 after Papua New Guinea declared independence from the British Empire to become the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. In his retirement, Sinclair returned to his previous hobby of writing on Papua New Guinea history, eventually publishing more than 30 books prior to his death on October 9, 2017. Terry Gwynn-Jones was born in Malvern, England (UK) in 1933. In 1951, Gwynn-Jones joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) and subsequently served as a pilot in the RAF, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) before joining the Australian Department of Aviation in 1969. In 1975, veteran Battle of Britain pilot Denys Dalton—with Gwynn-Jones as co-pilot—set a new around-the-world speed record for piston engined aircraft, flying Beech Duke 60 (r/n VH-TKE) round trip from Brisbane, Australia, in 122 hours 19 minutes 57 seconds between July 20 and 25, 1975. In 1983, Gwynn-Jones was a member of the Australian team which won that year's World Ballooning Championship in France. A prolific writer, Gwynn-Jones published numerous aviation history books and articles, and served as a consultant and writer for the Time-Life Epic of Flight series. In the 1980s, Gwynn-Jones was appointed to a visiting fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and in 1987 he was appointed to the Board of Advisors of the museum's History of Aviation book project. Gwynn-Jones died in Brisbane on March 28, 2008.
NASM.1988.0048
circa 1922-1035
Terry Gwynn-Jones, gift, 1987, NASM.1988.0048
0.2 Cubic feet (4 folders)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
The photographs illustrate aviation activities in Papua, New Guinea from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s including Guinea Airways operations, primarily cargo operations, using Junkers G 31 and W 34 aircraft in support of gold mining and oil exploration; other smaller operators, like Bulolo Goldfield's Aeroplane Services and W. R. Carpenter Air Services using mostly de Havilland aircraft; various "bush pilots" also extensively using de Havilland planes; and expeditions such as the Stirling New Guinea Expedition, fostered by the Smithsonian Institution and employing a modified float-equipped Breguet Bre.14 B2 ("The Ern"), and the Hurley Expedition of 1922 which used a Curtiss MF (Seagull) (Model 18) flying boat. This group of 8 x 10 inch black and white photographs are copy photographs made from copy negatives shot from James Sinclair's original photographs and lent to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) for copying by Terry Gwynn-Jones. The originals were collected by Sinclair for use in his book, Wings of Gold: How the Aeroplane Developed New Guinea, Pacific Publications (Sydney), 1978. The collection does not include copies of all photographs used in the book.
A set of 42 poor-quality copy negatives and copy photographs were produced in 1987 by the Smithsonian Office of Printing and Photographic Services (SI-OPPS) and assigned numbers 87-16321 through 87-16362. In 1990, a set of 52 good-quality copy negatives and copy photographs were produced in 1990 by SI-OPPS and assigned numbers 90-128 through 90-179. The 1990 set includes 16 images not found in the 1987 set. There is extensive but incomplete overlap between the 1987 set and the 1990 set; in all, there are 57 unique images.
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"Wings of Gold: How the Aeroplane Developed New Guinea" Collection, Acc. NASM.1988.0048, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics
Aeronautics, Commercial -- Freight
Airplanes
Airlines
Collection descriptions
Archival materials