Joseph F. Wehner Collection

The Joseph F. Wehner Collection is primarily comprised of photographs and documents related to the life and World War I service of Joseph Wehner, a fighter ace who served with the 27th Aero Squadron and who was killed in action. The collection includes correspondence to his sister Hazel, as well as correspondence about Wehner's death written to various members of his family. The photographs in the collection depict Wehner during his aviation training and during his time on the front in France.

In addition to these personal manuscript and photograph items, this collection also contains ephemera concerning Joseph Wehner and his friend and wingman Frank Luke. These items include newspaper and magazine clippings about Wehner and Luke, as well as materials written by the Champlin Fighter Museum in Mesa, Arizona (now closed). Taken together, the items in this collection give a limited but personal insight into the life of Joseph Wehner from approximately 1913 to 1918 and also documents the ways in which he was memorialized in the years after World War I.

The collection seems to have been assembled by someone other than Wehner himself; there are, for instance, photographs of his grave. The collection could have been assembled by any number of people, including his family members.

Please note that materials on TMOF: Digital Collections are presented as historical objects and are unaltered and uncensored. See our Disclaimers and Policies page for more information.