Julius A. Barr Photograph Album

The Julius A. Barr Photograph Album contains three hundred and thirty (339) black-and-white photographs documenting Barr's time in China from 1934 to 1937. Images feature aerial shots of Chinese countryside, cities, and airfields; aircraft such as the Boeing Model 247D piloted by Barr; military activities such as supply drops, troop inspections and movement, and damaged buildings; and points of interest in China, including the Great Wall, tombs, pagodas, and temples. Identified people in album include Barr and his immediate family, Royal Leonard (another pilot for Chiang Kai-shek), Zhang Xueliang (also known as the "Young Marshal" and "Peter Chang"), Chiang Kai-shek, and General Yang Hucheng.

The collection also contains a single file folder with photocopies of some images from within the album. There are two photocopied pages that feature the cover and an unnumbered page from Flight in the China Air Space 1910-1950 by Malcom Rosholt. The unnumbered page features a group portrait of fourteen people in evening dress and includes James "Jimmy" Elder and Julius Barr. The items in the folder have not been digitized.

Julius Augustus Barr (1905-1939) had a varied flight career as a transcontinental air mail pilot, a test pilot, a military aircraft demonstrator, and a personal transport pilot. He served, either by choice or detainment (reports vary), as the personal pilot for Zhang Xueliang. After being released from Zhang's service, he became one of the personal pilots for Chiang Kai-shek. Barr joined the Boeing Aircraft Company in 1938 as an engineer and test pilot. He was killed in 1939 during a flight test of the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, which suffered engine failure and crashed near Alder, Washington.

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