From time to time generous individuals come forward who add immensely to our understanding of the people. airplanes, places and events that are celebrated in the old Davis-Monthan Airfield Register. The Collections cited below contain hundreds of images, documents and memorabilia of people from the period of the Register. Many of the items are unique and have never been published before in any medium. We should all be grateful to the donors for their time and effort while allowing me to review and scan their photographs and documents.

THIS PAGE & THE COLLECTIONS UNDER CONTINUOUS REVISION

Please direct your browser to the links to learn more about the Register people, the Collection donors and their contributions.

THE COLLECTIONS ARE LISTED IN REVERSE ORDER

OF ACQUISITION AND IMPLEMENTATION ON DMAIRFIELD.ORG

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July 2009 The Lee Lysle Willey Photograph and Document Collection

This Collection comes to us courtesy of Liz Zemke and Scott Willey, Lee Willey's granddaughter and grandson. The 84 images chosen for the Collection, added to the 60 that are on Lee Willey's biography page (q.v.), comprise in sum an intimate look into the major phases of Lee Willey's life, family and flying career. (Fresno, CA)

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August 2008 The Clarence B. Gilpin Collection of Gilpin Air Lines Photographs and Documents

This small collection of images and documents comes to us courtesy of Clarence B. Gilpin, nephew of Register pilot Charles William "Bill" Gilpin, and his family. His uncle, was a frequent visitor to Tucson. This is a small Collection of 50 images, artifacts, newsclips and documents illustrative of Gilpin's family, business and aircraft. (Fort Mill, SC)

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August, 2007 The Klein Archive of Aviation Photographs

Bruce Klein owns Bernie's Photo Center in Pittsburgh, PA. He also operates the Photo Antiquities Museum of Photographic History at 531 East Ohio Street, Pittsburgh. Bruce's contributions to dmairfield.org came about indirectly. During July, 2007 your Webmaster bought a 1934 Agfa Ansco bellows camera at an antique shop (follow the link to the Archive to see the camera). This type of camera easily could have captured images from the Davis-Monthan Airfield era, and I thought I might snap a few images of old airplanes with it to use on this Web site, just to round out the metaphor. I needed film for it and visited Bernie's Photo Center to get some. Bruce stocked the film and asked what I was going to do with the camera. We discussed this Web site and he, like Charles Cooper, above, went into another room and returned with a few dusty photo albums. They were filled with wonderful aircraft photographs, and they were representative of a few dozen additional albums owned by his Museum. I spent four days scanning them. The result of those four days, and Bruce's contribution to dmairfield.org, is exhibited in his Archive. (Pittsburgh, PA)

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October, 2006 The C. Burton Cosgrove, Jr. Photographic and Document Collection

Burt Cosgrove's father, Cornelius Burton Cosgrove, Jr., was the manager of the old Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1928 and 1932. As well, he was an expert amateur photographer. Many of Burt's hundreds of images on this site were taken by his father. Burt is co-author of this article available as a PDF download in the REFERENCES. (Albuquerque, NM)

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October, 2006 The Harold B. "Hap" Russell Photographic and Document Collection

Ed Russell shares with us his father's image and document collection. He wrote most of the biographical information on the home page of the Collection. His father was Harold B. "Hap" Russell, who holds the distinction of being the most frequent signer of the Davis-Monthan Register. Ed is co-author of this article available as a PDF download in the REFERENCES. (Phoenix, AZ)

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October, 2006 The Russell T. Gerow Photograph Collection

Mike Gerow shares with us his father's image and document collection, most of which was collected in the Long Beach - Bakersfield, CA area. Mike is co-author of this article available as a PDF download in the REFERENCES. (San Diego, CA)

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January, 2006 The Ruth Richter Holden Collection (under construction) (San Luis Obispo, CA)

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October, 2005 The Louis Hudgin Photograph and Document Collection (under construction)

Louis Hudgin is the nephew of Register pilot Al Hudgin. I met him at Tucson October 2, 2005 and he invited me to view and scan his collection over the following week. (Phoenix, AZ)

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October, 2005 The Charles Cooper Photograph and Document Collection

Charles Cooper and I first met at his airport in west Texas. While I was paying my fuel bill, we chatted about this and that. This Web site came up in our conversation and Charles allowed, "I have something you might be interested in." He disappeared into a hangar for a few minutes and emerged with a few boxes covered with west Texas dust. Because of the wealth of interesting and relevant items in the boxes, I interrupted my cross-country trip and spent all night at a motel in Kermit, TX scanning them. The results are exhibited in his Collection. (Wink, TX)

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In most cases, the images in the Collections shown on this site are only representative samples of photographs and documents owned by the collectors. I only exhibit those relevant to the people, airplanes, events and places of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register between 1925 and 1936. In most cases, copyright is reserved by the owners of the Collections.

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I recognize also, in alphabetical order, the following donors whose contributions are something less than entire collections, but much more than just single photos.

Rob Bach has provided images of Travel Airs NC9024, NC9049; Bach NC302E, NR7092, NC8069 and many others. Rob's Web site of aviation and other photographs is at the link. (Burlington, WI)

Brian Dalton is the owner of Travel Air NC4834. There were 163 landings by Travel Air models recorded in the Register. Brian has provided images and commentary about NC9049, NC5426, NC4834, Julius von der Heyden and Walter Beech. (Dallas, OR)

Andy Heins is President (as of the upload date of this page) of the National Waco Club. He  runs the day to day business of the Club, and has shared with us many images of Waco aircraft (and many anecdotes about their pilots) to help us understand better the Wacos that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield. There were 107 landings by Waco aircraft recorded in the Register. Andy and I discussed each one. Many of the images of these airplanes are from the Waco Club, or from Andy's own collection. Some examples are: the Waco company, NX7527, NX5533, NC11440, NC12443, NC13578, NC13424, Gilbert Sykes, Charles Mayse, "Tex" LaGrone, John Wood, Lee Brutus, George Zinn, Bessie Owen, Freddie Lund and many others. (Dayton, OH)

Tim Kalina has shared with us from his own collection many of the Lockheed aircraft photographs that you see on this site. As well as his excellent images, Tim provides a considerable amount of "color reporting", providing little-known facts and anecdotes about the images of airplanes and people he shares. He is also a faithful overseer of new additions to the site and provides many helpful facts and comments. He is quoted many, many places on this Web site. Here are some examples of his contributions: NC926Y, NC2756, NX9017, NC4770, NC7863, NC6477, NC4278, NC3318, NC32M, NC49M, NC11Y, NR8494, NC676H, NC105N, NC9424, NC972Y, NC869E, NC858E, NC288W, NC13W NC117W, 26-202 , NC849E, Grand Central Air Terminal, Tom Colby, Ruth Barron, Ira Eaker, E.E. Aldrin, Eddie Hedeen, James Dickson, Carl Squier, Peter Dana, NC625E, and many, many others. (Chicago, IL)

Aviation Historian John Underwood (L) & Your Webmaster, May, 2009 (Source: Webmaster)

John Underwood has shared with us from his extensive collection many photographs of people, aircraft and places relevant to the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register. John has authored books, many with history and photographs relevant to dmairfield.org. Left, John in his massive photo "archive" with your Webmaster, May, 2009.

He has contributed photos for Peter Brooks and Aline Brooks, Lee V. Brusse, Clare Bunch, Ace Bragunier, Bob Buck, Eddie Bacque, Leslie Bowman, Martie Bowman, Eddie Bellande and many others distributed across the alphabet. (Glendale, CA)

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 03/03/08 REVISED: 03/12/08, 04/23/08, 12/30/08, 03/23/09, 07/08/09, 01/22/10