Three historically important scrapbooks, which belonged to Reuben H. Fleet, have been digitized by the Museum’s Library & Archives as part of the California Revealed program. California Revealed is a State Library initiative to help digitize California’s archival treasures, at no cost to the source institution.

Fleet founded Consolidated Aircraft in 1923 in Buffalo, New York, relocating his company to San Diego in 1935. During World War II, located on Pacific Highway by Lindbergh Field, the company employed nearly 50,000 San Diegans, delivering tens of thousands of aircraft. His company merged with Vultee Aircraft in 1943, becoming Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (Convair).

These oversized scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings and articles about Fleet and Consolidated Aircraft, dating from 1928 to 1942. On loan to the Museum by the Fleet family, they were created by Fleet’s personal secretary.

The digitization of these books will allow research of materials that include valuable marketing and media information about Consolidated Aircraft prior to its move to San Diego, as well as the early years of World War II. The California Revealed project has already digitized many of the Museum’s oral histories, including those of T.C. Ryan, Waldo Waterman and Lillian Boyer.

These are available at: https://archive.org/details/sandiegoairspacemuseum