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Walter R. Brookins Aviation Collection
H.Mss.0991
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Title: Walter R. Brookins Aviation Collection
Dates: 1900-1954
Collection number: H.Mss.0991
Creator:
Brookins, Walter R., 1888-1953
Extent:
0.2 Linear Feet
(1 slim document box)
Repository:
Claremont Colleges. Library. Special Collections, The Claremont
Colleges Library, Claremont, CA 91711.
Abstract: Photographs of the
Wright glider and flyer, 1900 and 1902, and of various air meets circa 1910-circa 1912, as
well as of reunions of the Early Birds, and of Walter Brookins; a loose-leaf binder
containing typed transcripts of newspaper articles and book chapters concerning the Wright
brothers and Brookins' career; a portfolio of photographic plates published in 1952 by the
National Aerographic Society, a subsidiary of the Institute of Aeronautical History,
commemorating important events in the history of flight; newspaper article, 1930, containing
reminiscences of Brookins of his early days with the Wright brothers.
Language of Material: Languages represented in the
collection: English.
Administrative Information
Collection open for research.
All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Special
Collections.
[Identification of item], Walter R. Brookins Aviation Collection (H.Mss.0991). Special
Collections and Archives, The Claremont Colleges Library, The Claremont Colleges Services,
Claremont, California.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Donor and date of acquisition unknown. The collection came to Special Collections together
with the James Carruthers Memorial Aviation Collection of the Institute of Aeronautical
History.
No additions to the collection are anticipated.
Collection processed by Michael P. Palmer, July 2004.
Biography / Administrative History
Walter Richard Brookins was born in Dayton, Ohio, on July 11, 1888. He first knew Orville
and Wilbur Wright at the age of four, and was a student of their sister, Katherine, a
schoolteacher. As a teenager he spent much time at the Wright brothers' bicycle shop,
observing them, testing their theories, and after their successful first flight the brothers
promised Brookins a plane as soon as he was old enough. Brookins, along with J. W. Davis,
Spencer C. Crane, Arch Hoxsey, and Arthur L. Welch, was one of the five men chosen to be
trained as pilots to engage in exhibition flying for the Wright Company, and with Davis was
the first to arrive at the Wright Brothers' training camp, at what is now Maxwell Field,
outside Montgomery, Alabama, on March 19, 1910. Brookins was the first civilian pilot taught
to fly by Orville Wright, taking to the air after two and a half hours of instruction,
controlling a flight from start to finish on April 30, and flying alone for 12 minutes on
May 6. On May 10, Orville Wright left Montgomery to return to Dayton, leaving Brookins in
charge of training the other two students. As a member of the Wright Company's exhibition
team, Brookins was under a two-year contract, receiving a basic salary of $20 a week,
supplemented by $50 per day for every flying day; prize money was turned into the company.
Brookins was one of the most daring and accomplished members of the Wright team. On July 10,
1910, at Atlantic City, he became the first person to reach an altitude of one mile in an
airplane, winning a $5,000 prize for the Wright Company from the Atlantic City Aero Club,
and on September 29, 1911, he set an American distance record by flying 192 miles from
Chicago to Springfield, IL, making two stops.
Although he broke with the Wright team in 1911 and retired as an instructor in 1914,
Brookins remained active in aviation throughout his life. In 1928, He was a founding member
of the Early Birds, an organization of those who had piloted a glider, airship, or airplane
before December 17, 1916; he was also president of the organization in 1937. In his later
years he was a partner in the Davis-Brooking Aircraft Co., of Hollywood, California, which
developed the wing assembly used on all World War II B-24s. He was also sometime president
of the Institute of Aeronautical History, and a leading member of the Friends of
Aeronautical History, which in 1949 organized the Brookins Lahm Wright Aeronautical
Foundation (incorporated in December 1953, after his death) to support (1) the Portal of the
Folded Wings, a burial place for pioneer aviators in Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park,
in North Hollywood, California; (2) the Library of the Institute of Aeronautical History
(incorporated 1933), now the James Carruthers Memorial Aviation Collection of the Institute
of Aeronautical History, Claremont McKenna College, deposited in the Honnold/Mudd Library,
Claremont, California; and (3) the Gillette Museum Center of International Aeronautical
Documentation, of which nothing further is known at present (cf. the James N. Gillette
Aviation Collection, Photographic Collection P-140, Seaver Center for Western History
Research, Natural History Museum of the County of Los Angeles).
Brookins died at his home in Hollywood, California, on April 29, 1953, after an illness of
four months. He was the first aviator to be buried in the Portal of the Folded Wings, in
Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, in North Hollywood, California.
Sources:
- Dave Kendziora, "Wright trainee flew high, set cross-country record," Hilltop Times, Thursday, July 10, 2003, (last accessed June 7, 2004).
- Obituary, New York Times, April 30, 1953, p. 31:1.
Scope and Contents of Collection
The collection contains photographs of the Wright glider and Wright flyer from circa
1902-circa 1903, and of various air meets circa 1910-circa 1912, as well as of reunions of
the Early Birds, and of Walter Brookins. It includes a loose-leaf binder of typescript
transcriptions of newspaper articles and book chapters concerning the Wright brothers and
Brookins' career, as well as a portfolio of photographic plates published in 1952 by the
National Aerographic Society, a subsidiary of the Institute of Aeronautical History,
commemorating important events in the history of flight, and a newspaper article from 1930,
with reminiscences of Brookins of his early days with the Wright brothers.
This collection has been organized into the following series:
- Series 1: Photographs, 1900-1945
- Series 2: Printed Matter, 1910-1954
A binder containing typescript copies of newspaper articles and book chapters from
1910-1952, concerning the early history of fixed-wing flight in the United States, the
Wright brothers, and the career of Walter Brookins was separated from the collection,
cataloged, and added to Special Collections' aviation folio holdings. The item can be found
in Library catalog using the call number "TL 508 B791."
The loose-leaf binder (14.5 x 12.5 inches) contains multiple copies-primarily carbon
copies, with some originals-of most items. A 1953 typescript copy of a 1948 account by
Charles E. Taylor, "My Story of the Wright Brothers", formerly in this binder, is now in Box
12, Folder 8 of the James Carruthers Memorial Aviation Collection of the Institute of
Aeronautical History.
The items are arranged in the binder without apparent order. The following is a list of the
items in chronological order by the date of the event(s) each item describes. The number(s)
preceding each entry indicate the relative position of each item in the binder.
Unless otherwise noted, all items are carbon copies.
- Item 3: Fred C. Kelly. Why the Wright Plane Was Exiled. The Wright Brothers: A Biography (New York, 1943), chapter 19. [23] p.
- Item 12: Charlton Lawrence Edholm. The Noble sport of aviation. Out West, vol. 32, no. 1 (January 1910). 7 p.
- Item 1: S. B. Reeve. First International Aviation Meet at Dominguez Field, 1910. Account dated Los Angeles County, California, June 11th, 1930. 13 p.
- Item 2: William May Garland to S. B. Reeve, Los Angeles, May 6, 1930. Letter concerning 2nd Air Meet at Dominguez Hills, in 1911. 2 p.
- Items 29, 31: Extracts from the Montgomery Advertiser, Monday, April 18, 1910-May 22, 1910, concerning the Wright flying school [include references to Walter R. Brookins]. 5 p. 2 copies.
- Item 30: Extracts from Montreal Daily Star, Monday, June 27, 1910, concerning the aviation meet at Lakeside. 4 p.
- Items 10, 13: "Brookins more than a mile up. / In Wright biplane he breaks all world records for height / Flies more than an hour / Final figures of remarkable flight not determined yet, but official recognition is certain. / Progress in high flying". New York Tribune, Sunday, July 10, 1910. 3 p. 2 copies.
- Items 4, 25: "Aviator-Brookins is hurt. / High flight record holder imperils life to save spectators. / Bruised and nose broken. / Machine turns over in quick shift to avoid onlookers" [article on Walter Brookins]. Chicago Daily News , August 10, 1910. 1 p. 2 copies.
- Item 5: "Brookins Makes 12-Minute Flight". Evening American [Chicago], vol. 11, no. 77, Tuesday, September 27, 1910. 2 p. [2 copies of p. 2].
- Items 7-9: "Brookins makes great flight". Chicago American , vol. 11, no. 75, Wednesday, September 28, 1910. 3 p. 1 original and 2 copies.
- Items 6, 15: "Mr. Drexel and his speedy Bleriot reaches a height of 7,105 feet: / Mr. Brookins, his motor frozen, coasts 4,800 feet to earth / ten thousand spectators at Belmont Park thrilled by masters of the air. / Ten Aviators seen in flight at once". New York Herald, Tuesday, October 25, 1910. 3 p. 2 copies [#6 has p. 1-2 only].
- Items 20-21: "Walter Brookins, daring bird man. Piercing the skies: / Met first accident of his career at Baldwin Park yesterday / Brookin's moment of peril." Quincy Daily Herald, June 17, 1911. 2 p. 2 copies.
- Items 22-23: "Gill makes new aeroplane endurance record for America at Kinloch meet; / Flyer Eugene Ely killed in Georgia / Robinson reaches Dubuque; / Goes 58 miles in 50 minutes. / Aviator, ascending at Winona at 8:15, reaches / Prairie du Chien at 11- welcomed by 25,000 / On bluffs in Iowa City." St. Louis Times , October 19, 1911. 2 p. 2 copies.
- Items 34, 36: "Four aeroplane flights. / Mr. Walter R. Brookins gave fine exhibition in flying machine at Highwood Park / Carried US Mail." Morning Star (Wilmington, NC), January 3, 1912. 2 p. 2 copies.
- Items 16-17, 19: "Aeroplane flights attract attention. / Walter R. Brookins demonstrates wonderful ability. / Skilled aviator will establish an aviation camp in this section and will have pupils." Palm Beach Weekly News , January 13, 1912. 2 p. 1 original (#17) and 2 copies.
- Items 14, 18, 33: 1 p. [1 original (#18) and 2 copies], with the following: (1) "Collier passenger in Brookins' hydro-aeroplane". New York American , February 10, 1912. (2) "Flys to his houseboat. / Robert J. Collier sends guests by motorboat-Mrs. Collier goes up." New York Sun , February 17, 1912. (3) "Recalls Hoxsie's death." Glendale News Press, Monday, August 3, 1936. (4) "23 years ago today." Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1936.
- Items 11, 26: "Air craft beats Kitty Hawk II in first river race. Brookins is victor in thrilling speed contest around Belle Isle, / Winning from the H\hydroplane by only seventy seconds". Detroit News, June 19, 1912. 3 p. 2 copies.
- Items 24, 27: "America seeks air speed title." Los Angeles Examiner , June 28, 1936. 1 p. 2 copies.
- Item 28: Public Law 722-79th Congress / Chapter 955-2d Session / H. R. 5144 / An Act to establish a national air museum, and for other purposes. Approved August 12, 1946.
- Item 32: "Aeronautical museum / Assured for Los Angeles / Fund presented at I A S 'Honors Night' / Establish repository in name of Dr. Durand." Western Aviation, February 1952. 2 p.
- Item 35: Almer Isackson. Walter Brookins' Career / Tells aviation history. 5 p.
- James Carruthers Memorial Aviation Collection of the Institute of Aeronautical History , Special Collections, The Claremont Colleges Library, Claremont, California.
- James N. Gillette Aviation Collection , Photographic Collection P-140, Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library’s online public access catalog.
Aeronautical sports -- History
Aeronautics -- History
Early Birds of Aviation (Organization)
Wright, Orville, 1871-1948
Wright, Wilbur, 1867-1912
Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
Correspondence
Prints
Photographs