Photographs of Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis in France at the conclusion of his 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, including photographs of Lindbergh with other famous aviators and of the dismantling of the Spirit of St. Louis for inspection and shipment back to the United States. Also materials, primarily reproductions of prints, drawings, and photographs documenting the history of aviation from 1783 to 1978, collected by Ault to illustrate his book By the Seat of Their Pants , published in 1978. These materials emphasize in particular the history of aviation in the United States from 1900 to 1950, including the Wright brothers, barnstormers, the first flight around the world in 1924, early air mail carriers, Charles Lindbergh, the Dole Derby of 1927, Amelia Earhart, and Douglas "Wrong-Way" Corrigan.

Phillip Halliday Ault was born in Maywood, Illinois, on April 26, 1914. He graduated from DePauw University in 1935. From 1935 to 1937, he was a reporter for the LaGrange (Illinois) Citizen. In 1938, he became a corresponding editor for UPI, serving in Chicago, New York City, Iceland, North Africa, and London, where he was bureau chief in 1944-1945. In 1948, he left UPI to become assistant managing editor and director of the editorial page for the Times-Mirror Company in Los Angeles. From 1948 to 1957, he was editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Mirror-News, and from 1958-1968, executive editor and vice president of Associated Desert Newspapers, in Palm Springs. In 1968, he returned to the Midwest as associate editor of the South Bend (Indiana) Tribune. He retired in 1979, and died in Sun City West, Arizona, on July 2, 2001.

1 archives carton + 1 oversize box (0.4 linear foot).

All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Special Collections.

Collection open for research.