The Museum's Library & Archives staff have remained busy during the Covid-19 shutdown by creating online exhibits and artifact spotlights. Since April, seven online exhibits have been posted on the Museum’s website. To find them, look for the dropdown menu under “Explore” on the website masthead, and under “Exhibits” select “Online Exhibits.” There you will find special exhibits featuring collection images, presented in a fun and informative way that connects online visitors with the archive’s resources.

The first one to go up was in April and focuses on the history of local San Diego airline, PSA: Pacific Southwest Airlines. Another is “Before They Soared,” which is a very clever photo exhibit featuring our aviation heroes during their childhood and young adult years.

Photographs from our Convair collection were gathered to tell the story of “Women Factory Workers of WWII.” From our autograph collection, “Aviation Autographs” features signed photographs of famous aviators. “Dogs & Aviators” is a fun exhibit featuring pilots with their favorite pooches. Another fun exhibit you don’t want to miss is “Aviation’s Daredevils of the 1920s: Barnstormers, Wing-Walkers and Stunt Pilots.” Check it out for some sensational images of aviation’s first daredevils.

“Industrial Artists, Illustrators, and Photographers” features colorful and modern paintings by aviation technical artists and photographers Roy Gjertson (General Dynamics), Mark Irwin (Consolidated Vultee), and Robert Kemp (General Dynamics).

Library & Archives staff members also created a few online “Artifact Spotlights” featuring items from the Museum’s collection. To find them, go back to the “Exhibits” dropdown menu on the Museum’s website, and under “Collections” select “Artifacts.” There you will find photo presentations about the Standard J-1 on display in the Museum’s Barnstormer exhibit and the Bonanza Beechcraft airplane model hanging in the Museum’s library. Two other artifact spotlights feature very rare documents from the collection, a manuscript by Arthur Dunning Spearman about J.J. Montgomery; and a pair of 1918-19 logbooks from the 103^rd Aero Squadron. The 103^rd was the first American combat squadron to see action in World War I, and was initially comprised of 17 pilots from the famed Lafayette Escadrille, the French squadron made up of mostly American volunteers.

We are very fortunate to have these rare documents, artifacts, and photographs in our collections, and are happy to feature them online for all our virtual visitors to enjoy. Our increased online presence is an effort for us to carry out our mission during the quarantine period, when many remain at home. During this time, you can look forward to one online exhibit and two spotlights each month.