Notebooks and Files for Chronology
Object Details
- Collection Creator
- Jones, Ernest La Rue, 1883-1955
- See more items in
- Ernest Jones Aeronautical Collection
- Archival Repository
- National Air and Space Museum Archives
- Identifier
- NASM.XXXX.0096, Series 3
- Type
- Archival materials
- Collection Citation
- Ernest Jones Aeronautical Collection, NASM.XXXX.0096, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
- Collection Rights
- Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
- Scope and Contents
- Throughout his life, Ernest Jones sought to maintain and add to a comprehensive chronological encyclopedia of aeronautics. The work begins with the lore and legend of flight through the ages but soon becomes a nearly day-to-day compilation of significant events in aviation history. Since its primary focus is the history of American aviation, worldwide developments in the art are followed only until a technology is adopted in the United States, from which point only American events in that category are detailed. Over the years that this project was pursued by Jones, several different foci guided the inclusion of entries. For example, correspondence indicates that the work was at one time envisioned as "an annual or yearbook comprising a chronicle of American civil, military and naval aeronautics from the earliest date to 1919, with chapters on present-day status, theory of design, statistics and miscellaneous information; all for ready reference by newspapers, libraries and students of aeronautics generally" (Jones to The Director of Air Service, Washington, D.C., 9 July 1919, Biographical Files on microfilm, NASM Archives). Some 24 years later, Jones sought to form the work into "a chronology of the Army Air Forces from 1890 to Pearl Harbor" (Jones to Chief AFIHI, 15 May 1943, Biographical Files on microfilm, NASM Archives). Various titles were considered for the work at different times. For the purposes of this finding aid, we will refer to Series III, Subseries I as the "chronology." At the time of its donation to NASM, this chronology consisted of 52 loose-leaf binders of typewritten pages. The contents of these binders had been rehoused into acid-free folders and the archivist has chosen to maintain the integrity of these folders. The Museum also holds a microfilm copy (M182-M203) which was made of the chronology the early 1960s. Subseries 3 consists of subject files maintained by Jones for his own research. At some point, Ernest Jones considered appending to his chronology a complete bibliography of flight. Subseries 4 consists of materials related to this undertaking. In fact, a bibliography was later to be published by Jones (Lists of Best Known Aeronautical Books on Principal Subjects), but it is not included in this collection. Please refer to Series VI for Individual, Subject and Biographical files that are of legal size.
- Collection Restrictions
- No restrictions on access.
- Record ID
- ebl-1562767212035-1562767212053-1
- Metadata Usage
- CC0