The Descriptive Finding Guide for the James H. Hester Personal Papers. SDASM.SC.10069
Alan Renga
San Diego Air and Space Museum Library and Archives
11/05/2014
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
San Diego Air and Space Museum Library and Archives
Title: James H. Hester Personal Papers
source:
Hester, James H.
Identifier/Call Number: SDASM.SC.10069
Physical Description:
0.4 Cubic Feet
One Box
Date (inclusive): 1898-1980
Abstract: James Harvey Hester was a Stunt Flyer who was associated with the famous Hollywood Black Cats. He served in the USAAS at Kelly
Field, TX briefly during WWI then returned to Venice. He was a test and stunt pilot in the southern California area between
1919 and 1925
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.
James Harvey Hester was born to John and Amelia (Nichols) Hester in Rocky Ford, Colorado on July 16, 1898. The family operated
a cattle ranch there and later in Riverside, CA. After school he served as the Chief Research Engineer for the Edison Company
among other jobs but took up an interest in aviation as a hobby. By 1917 Hester was doing aviation full time in Venice CA.
He served in the USAAS at Kelly Field, TX briefly during WWI then returned to Venice. He was a test and stunt pilot in the
southern California area between 1919 and 1925. Hester was associated with the famous “Black Cats” barnstorming show and
was a friend of many of the leading aviators of the time. During this time he worked for the Timm Brothers, Douglas Aircraft,
Northrop and various film studios as a stunt flyer. After giving up flying around 1930, Hester owned an electrical and appliance
store at 516 Santa Monica Blvd. He and his wife also owned and managed a “Dude Ranch” in the Santa Monica Mountains above
Malibu called Big Oak Basin Guest Ranch. They also had a mortgage and loan business in EI Monte, CA. Avid horse riders, the
Hester family provided for and maintained many equestrian trails in the mountains around the Los Angeles area. On August 15,
1980, Jim Hester died of cancer, and is interred at Victor Valley Memorial Park, Victorville, CA.
The collection is comprised of many news clippings, letters, 143 photos, autographs, a partial 1917 log book, Big Oak Basin
Ranch brochure and some legal papers.
Stunt Flying/Daredevil Photo Collection.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Hollywood Black Cats
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Douglas Aircraft Company
Stunt flying
United States. Army. Air Corps. Advanced Flying School (Kelly Field, Tex.)
Hester, James H.
Series I: Correspondence, Official Papers and Other
Physical Description: 1. Blank log book
2. Partial log book for 1917
3. Correspondence from Howard Batt, August 1921
4. Legal papers from the lease of hangar space at Clover Field to the Timm Brothers, 1932
5. Misc. personal correspondence with various friends
6. Undated brochure for Hester’s “Big Oak Basin Guest Ranch”
Series II: Photographs and Drawings
Physical Description: 1. Three photos attached to Popular Mechanic’s article on Frank Clark’s 1920 flight from a Los Angeles Skyscraper roof with
Hester’s assistance.
2. As above
3. As above
4. Hester next to Douglas Cloudster with two other pilots
5. Hester with “Marie” next to Hester’s Curtiss Jenny, 1922
6. Wally Timm with a Timm M-150 Collegiate
7. Hester with “The Boys”, Venice CA, 1919
8. Hester and two aviators with Curtiss JN
9. “Leta” and Hester in plane
10. Swead Lundburg and plane, 1920
11. Mark Campbell with pet lion, 1920
12. Hester with Standard J-1 at Rogers Airport, 1920
13. Frank Clark taking off from building top, 21Dec20
14. Fokker D.VII, serial 8530.
15. Jim Hester in his first airplane, Curtiss Canuck, 1919
16. Loughead F-1 after conversion to landplane
17. Wreckage for “Frank ship” Curtiss JN, 1921
18. Loughead F-1 after conversion to landplane
19. Loughead F-1 after conversion to landplane
20. Hester next to wrecked plane
21. Loughead F-1 after conversion to landplane
22. Loughead F-1 after conversion to landplane
23. Timm Pacific Hawk with Wally Timm, Frank Clark and Jim Hester, 1919
24. Otto “Swede” Meyerhoffer, Frank Clark and Jim Hester with speed record plane, 1919
25. Mark Campbell and Frank Clark, 1920
26. Standard J-1, May, 1918
27. Curtiss Canuck, 1921
28. Unidentified speed record plane
29. Curtiss JN with wing walker, Santa Monica, 14Aug18
30. Hester working on unidentified speed record plane
31. Hester and Clark with group of Asian visitors
32. Packard-LePere Lusac 11 at Rogers Field air show
33. Hester working on unidentified speed record plane
34. Horses running during movie stunt, 1919
35. Pilots with wrecked plane, 1919
36. Frank Clark taking off from building top, 21Dec20
37. Ruth Law and Hester in car
38. Hester and Clark with wrecked plane
39. Hester’s Curtiss Canuck, 1919
40. Wally Timm, Hester and Nick Carter, building top, 21Dec20
41. Hester, Satsuma and Swede Meyerhoffer with damaged Curtiss JN
42. Hester’s Curtiss Canuck, 1919
43. DeHavilland DH-4 in flight, flown by Hester
44. Swede Meyerhoffer with airplane, 1917?
45. Ince Field, Venice CA, 1917
46. Swede Meyerhoffer and Hester with Standard J-1 at Venice Field, 1919 with Curtiss and children
47. Swede Meyerhoffer with two female passengers
48. Swede Meyerhoffer and Alice Morna (sp?), Venice Field, 1916-17
49. Photo postcard of plane landing on car
50. Hester changing planes in flight, Venice, 1921
51. Frank Clark and Wally Timm, 1919
52. Babe Kalishek, Venice CA, c21
53. Ruth Law
54. Junkers F 13
55. Curtiss L-4, 1920
56. Curtiss L-4, 1920
57. Female with Hester’s plane, 1923
58. Rube Short with plane, killed 4Jul23
59. Hester working on Standard L-6, 1920
60. Hester with his first airplane, Curtiss Canuck, 1920
61. Blimp flying over the building that Clark flew off, 1920
62. Clark walking on building parapet, 1920
63. Clark sitting in a small car marked “Chaplin Airdome” (sic)
64. Clark taking off from Los Angeles building, 21Dec20
65. Clark, Hester, Mark Campbell, Wally Timm and others with airplane on top of Los Angeles building, 21Dec20
66. Photo post card of “Fearless” Freddie Lund, stunt man and wing walker
67. Clark, Hester, Mark Campbell, Wally Timm and others with airplane on top of Los Angeles building, 21Dec20
68. Hester with “Ann” and “Por”
69. “Ann” and “Por”
70. CO Prest and Curtiss JN wreck, 1921
71. Hester and “Duck” with a wrecked airplane
72. Herb, Ann, Por and Hub
73. Swede Meyerhoffer and Hester in airplane, 1921
74. Hester in airplane, 1923
75. “What was left of Rob” – photo of wrecked and burned Curtiss JN
76. Hester’s dog “Laddie”, 1918
77. Culver City Field from the air, circa 1918
78. “SW”, man standing by planes, 1917
79. Hester’s Curtiss Canuck
80. Babe Kalishek, Venice CA, c21, inscribed to Hester
81. Babe Kalishek, Venice CA, c21, inscribed to Hester
82. Babe Kalishek, Venice CA, c21, standing on airplane wing, inscribed to Hester
83. Joe Hoff, barnstormer, 1921
84. Dick Oliver Kenwood and Howard Babb with one of Hester’s crashed planes, 1918
85. Crashed Curtiss JN
86. Army D.H.4B on forest patrol near Mt. Shasta with Hester, 1922
87. Lake Shasta, 1922
88. Curtiss JN Canuck
89. Catron-Fisk Triplane
90. Nose over crash, Curtiss JN
91. Wally Timm with the Borde Lon’s Monoplane
92. Dick Oliver Kenwood and Howard Babb with one of Hester’s crashed planes, 1918
93. Hester and Freddie Lund pose with girl at Rogers Field, 1920
94. “Friday the Runt” posing with plane, 1918
95. Frank Clark in plane
96. Catron-Fisk Triplane
97. Los Angeles Herald Examiner Building, 1920
98. Three women at the Big Valley Guest Ranch
99. Three women at the Big Valley Guest Ranch
100. Elmer Horsley in uniform, 1917
101. Airplane flying at Beverly Hills Speedway, circa 1920
102. Ansaldo SVA.5 belonging to Sheridan Motor Company of Oakland CA
103. Donald Douglas Jr. with Hubert Ketter wreck, 1922
104. Hester, Clark and others on top of tower, 1920
105. Wally Timm with the Borde Lon’s Monoplane, 1921
106. Bill Anderson in uniform, 1917
107. Booth Bee Line racer, 1920
108. Hester and Clark after an accident, 1919
109. “One I walked away from with a broken finger”, Hester crash, 1919
110. Clark, Hester, Mark Campbell, Wally Timm and others with airplane on top of Los Angeles building, 21Dec20
111. Frank Clark, 1919
112. Photo calendar, February, 1922
113. Johnny Rose and Jim Hester in Curtiss trainer, 1916, Hester at 16 years of age
114. Otto "Swede" Meyerhofer with two passengers in front of his Venice Aero Police Standard J-1, 1919
115. Otto "Swede" Meyerhofer with two passengers in his Venice Aero Police Standard J-1, 1919
116. Fokker T-2 with drums of fuel
117. Col. Joseph Clark in front of a USAAS Fokker D.VII
118. Aerial view of an air show at Rogers Field
119. Otto "Swede" Meyerhofer with two passengers in his Venice Aero Police Standard J-1, 19191
120. Photo calendar, June, 1922
121. Aerial view of rodeo in San Francisco
122. Timm Pacific Hawk, Venice, 1920
123. Fokker D.VII in flight
124. Packard-LePere Lusac 11 at Rogers Field air show, 1918
125. U.S. Navy blimp over Beverly Hills
126. Thomas Morse Sv-4c Scout, 38945, at Rogers Field air show, 1918
127. Fokker T-2 with drums of fuel
128. 1921 night view of an unknown Los Angeles airfield
129. Goodyear “Pony Blimp”, D-57 at Rogers Field, c1920 with Mercury Aviation Curtiss JNs
130. Timm Pacific Hawk, Venice, 1920
131. Timm Pacific Hawk in flight, Venice, 1920
132. Charlie Guegil (sp), Chinese Captain, with plane
133. Aerial view of an unknown movie studio, Culver City area circa 1920-21
134. Army D.H.4B on forest patrol near Mt. Shasta with Hester, 1922
135. Beverly Hills Speedway from the air, circa 1920
136. Junkers F.13 with Hester as pilot, Mercury Field
137. Hester performing a night flight over Ocean Park, 1920
138. Hester and Ruth Law sitting on the Timm Pacific Hawk, 1919
139. Hester and Ruth Law next to Hester’s airplane
140. Hester and other aviators on Ince Field, Venice CA, 1917
141. Hester with airplane, 1917
142. Hester with early Curtiss J, 1917
143. Hester and Ruth Law sitting in a car, 1918