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Macaulay (Theodore C.) Personal Papers
SDASM.SC.10091
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
San Diego Air and Space Museum Library and Archives
Title: Theodore C. Macaulay Personal Papers
Identifier/Call Number: SDASM.SC.10091
Physical Description:
0.43 Cubic Feet
10” X 15” X 5” box
Date (inclusive): 1887-1965
Abstract: Theodore Maculay was a student at the Curtiss Aviation School and was an employee and member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
As flight instructor, Macaulay regularly submitted names and validations for students to receive certification from the Aero
Club of America.
The collection is open to researchers by appointment.
Some copyright may be reserved. Consult with the library director for more information.
[Item], [Filing Unit], [Series Title], [Subgroups], [Record Group Title and Number], [Repository “San Diego Air & Space Museum
Library & Archives”]
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The materials in this Collection were donated to the San Diego Air and Space Museum.
Col. Theodore C. Macaulay USAF (Ret.) (September 30, 1897 – April 20, 1965) was born in Minnesota and educated in New York.
His parents were Henry F. and Susan Tomlinson Ayers Macaulay. At the Curtiss Aviation School at North Island, Macaulay leaned
to fly in the latter part of 1912, making him an Early Bird (an airman who flew before 1916). In 1913, he was named manager
and chief instructor of the Curtis Aviation School at North Island. He earned his Expert Aviator’s License (Number 19) Thanksgiving
Day, 1913. Shortly after setting an American altitude record in 1914, Macaulay transferred to the Curtiss factory at Hammondsport,
NY. The intent was for him to accompany a shipment of Curtiss H-7 TB flying boats to Russia.
While waiting for completion of this order, Macaulay took a Curtiss an H-7 to Toronto, Canada, the first such aircraft to
be in Canada. In 1915, Macaulay was named manager of the Curtiss Flying School at West Island Point (Hanlan’s Point), Toronto,
where he trained Canadian pilots for the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps. He also conducted test flights
for Curtiss. During this time with Curtiss, Macaulay set many altitude and speed records, winning the Curtis Cup in 1915.
Sept. 1, 1915 he wed Margaret Street of Coronado, Ca.
In 1916 Macaulay was named a senior instructor of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Aviation Section. His achievements included organizing
air fields in Chicago and Rantoul, Illinois and in Memphis, Tennessee. His training assignments took him to Taliferro Field
in Hicks, Texas and back to North Island to direct training at Rockwell Field on North Island and Ream Field at Imperial Beach.
The site was named after Major William Ream, the first U.S. Army Flight Surgeon to be killed in an aircraft accident.
Macaulay frequently stopped in Tucson on his regular flights between Texas and San Diego. In early 1919, Macaulay wrote an
article for the Saturday Evening Post that praised Tucson as a “friendly and appreciative city”… and an ideal place for aviators.”
In May 1919, the city opened its first municipal airport named Macaulay Airfield. In 1920 the field was renamed Fishburn Field
and then Tucson Municipal Flying Field. In 1927 the city would move its airport to a site it named Davis-Monthan Field, which
is still in use as Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The original airport changed hands several times and ceased operation sometime
between 1933 and 1958.
In 1922, Macaulay participated in a search for a missing aircraft carrying Army pilot First Lieutenant Charles C. Webber and
US Cavalry Colonel Francis C. Marshall. A memorial of the crash is in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in San Diego.
Macaulay was an original member of the aviation committee created in 1924 by the San Diego Chamber of Commerce to facilitate
the creation of an airport for the city. From 1929 to 1942, he would serve as manager for the Chamber.
From 1942 to 1944, Macaulay would return to the U.S. Army Air Corps as a part of the Army Air Transport Command and as liaison
officer with the British and French air forces in North Africa for which he received the Legion of Merit Medal.
Post war, Macaulay stayed active in the community serving as a member of the National City and Chula Vista Chambers of Commerce
and the Coronado Civic Club. He was manager of the Coronado branch of the National Trust & Savings Bank. Macaulay wrote many
manuscripts, some of which were published in technical magazines and at least one in The Saturday Evening Post in 1919. In
1958, Macaulay attended a reunion of Early Birds in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
This collection consists of a 10” X 15” X 5” box with many letters, contracts and manuscripts covering many aspects of the
career of Theodore C. Macaulay. The focus is his relationship with Curtiss Aviation as student, employee and member of the
U.S. Army Signal Corps. Also included are corporate memos and correspondence written by Glenn Curtiss to any number of recipients.
As flight instructor, Macaulay regularly submitted names and validations for students to receive certification from the Aero
Club of America.
Related SDASM Resources: Katrina Pescador, Alan Renga and Pamela Gay, San Diego International Airport Lindbergh Field. Charleston,
South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2012.
Louis S. Casey, Curtiss: The Hammondsport Era 1907–1915, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1981.
Glenn H. Curtiss and Augustus Post, The Curtiss Aviation Book, New York, N.Y.: Fredrick A.Stokes Publishers, 1912. (Saved
as TheCurtisAviationBook1912.PDF: \PHOTODROBO\Photos\Born Digital Documents\Digitized Publications\)
SDASM Bio-File- Macaulay, Theordore C.
Related Research Institutions: Colonel Theodore C. Macauley Avaition Training Schools Collection, 1910-1918 Smithsonian National
Air and Space Museum, Independence Ave at 6th Street, SW Washington, DC 20560 202-633-2214; http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?object=siris_arc_228048
Alexander D. Bevil, “The Service Knows and Will Remember: The Aircraft Crash Memorial on Japacha Ridge,” Journal of San Diego
History, V51-3 (2006): 153-172 http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/v51-3/pdf/v51-3_crash.pdf
Arizona Historical Society: Ephemera files Aiports-Arizona-Tucson to 1950: The Story of the Tucson Airport Authority.
http://www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/
Secondary Sources: Rebecca Maksel, “The Unrecognized First,” Smithsonian Air & Space 2011, accessed Dec. 3, 2013, http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/In-the-Museum-The-Unrecognized-First.html
Early Aviators http://earlyaviators.com/emacaule.htm http://www.earlyaviators.com/emeepi58.htm
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Curtiss Aviation School
United States. Air Force. Air Transport Command
San Diego International Airport
Rockwell Field
Ream Field (NAS Imperial Beach)
Early Bird Society
Macaulay, Theodore C.
Arnold, Henry Harley
Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Curtiss, Glenn Hammond