All Stories

Flight attendants were some of the people at the forefront of the fight for equality in the 20th century. Meet some of these remarkable people in this article. 

Brown made history again and again as a pilot, civil rights advocate, and leader. 

This is your captain, making history. Meet the first women to fly as captain for commercial airlines and discover their stories.  

Discover the stories of women who played a key role in the success of the space program in the U.S., but whose stories were untold for years.

When World War II broke out, hundreds of women took to the skies in support of the war effort. 

Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman to earn her pilot's license. Take a closer look at her training.

What do archivists do when they’re not in the archives? Last summer, in addition to making digital collections available to researchers all over the world, National Air and Space Museum archivists Elizabeth Borja and Melissa Keiser experimented with historical recipes found in the Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Collection.

June 19, 1865, Texas—A Union Army General, Gordon Granger informed the enslaved African Americans of Texas of their freedom. June 19, 1925—A young Black woman climbed into her aircraft and took to the skies in Houston, Texas. White and Black audiences, separated by different seating arrangements, cheered in unison. Reflect on the significance of both of these events and what it means today.

Coleman was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license, facing racist and sexist obstacles in the process.

Pioneering aviator Bessie Coleman's life and legacy aren’t just limited to aviation. In the air and on the ground, she made history.