Series I-A - Aircraft Files (2008-03-31)

Peter M. Bowers Photograph Collection and Papers - Series I-A - Aircraft Files, circa 1900s-2003

The aircraft files series of the Bowers Collection consists of nearly 210 cubic feet of material (170 cubic feet or more than 102,000 prints; 30 cubic feet or more than 40,000 negatives; four cubic feet of transparencies; and about three cubic feet of oversize items). Bowers made an attempt to document a wide variety of aircraft, from the beginning of aviation through the end of the twentieth century, and took a strong interest in gliders, homebuilt aircraft and experimental aircraft. American manufacturers, especially Boeing, are much more strongly represented than foreign ones such as Embraer or Airbus. While many of the images were taken by Bowers, many were also collected from fellow aviation enthusiasts and historians.