Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer

Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick was a pioneer parachutist and considered one of the most daring aeronauts during the golden age of flight. Born in 1893, she began parachuting in 1908 after persuading a balloonist at a local fair to take her up, and she quickly mastered parachuting to the ground from a trapeze attached to the gondola. Broadwick began traveling with the carnival, making exhibition jumps across North America, and became a darling of the aviation community for her youthfulness and diminutive frame of less than five feet tall.

On June 21, 1915, she became the first woman to parachute out of a moving airplane after Glenn Martin asked her to help demonstrate his parachute for the United States Army. Convinced of its usefulness, the aviation corps soon made parachutes mandatory for its pilots, and Broadwick served as an informal advisor for the military during World War I. Her final recorded jump was in 1922, and she was one of only a handful of women invited into the Early Birds, an early pilots club, even though she never earned her license. She lived quietly until her death in 1978.

Display Status

This object is on display in Early Flight at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Early Flight
Object Details
Country of Origin United States of America Type EQUIPMENT-Parachutes Physical Description Early parachute used by Tiny Broadwick. Cotton canvas pack; cap style silk canopy. Dimensions Approximate (as photographed): 22.86 x 172.72 x 71.12cm (9in. x 5ft 8in. x 2ft 4in.)
3-D (display): 41.9 × 45.7cm, 4.1kg, 25.4cm (1 ft. 4 1/2 in. × 1 ft. 6 in., 9lb., 10 in.)
Materials Natural Fabric, Silk, Steel, Aluminum, Wood
Inventory Number A19640639000 Credit Line Donated by Mrs. G. T. Brown Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Usage conditions apply
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use.