Peter M. Bowers was a prolific correspondent, and this Series serves as a testament to not only the breadth and scope of a life-long passion for his subject, but his tenacity and determination to learn more about virtually every aspect of the aviation history experience – as well as share with what he himself had learned. The series consists of 939 files (nine cubic feet of material). A spreadsheet file-level inventory has been created for this series and is available upon request.

Between July 6, 1945, the date of the earliest, incoming, dated correspondence found and to the very month off his passing (April 2003), Bowers corresponded, in handwriting or using a typewriter, with nearly 1,000 individuals during the course of the intervening 58 years. Many of those with whom he corresponded became life-long friends, even though he apparently only met a relative few of them in person. Many are or were internationally known historians, photographers and authors in their own right, such as Brian R. Baker, R.E.G. Davies, William Green, Dan Hagedorn, Fred Johnsen, William T. Larkins, Jean Magendi, Paul Matt, Gordon Swanborough, and Gordon S. Williams. Others whose files of correspondence in the collection are particularly voluminous include Richard S. Allen, David W. Lucabaugh, Douglas D. Olsen, B.C. Reed, Norm Taylor, and Norbert “Fred” Yaggi.

Researchers should be aware that while Bowers apparently attempted to retain all of his in-coming correspondence (including, in most instances, the envelopes in which the correspondence or enclosures was received), he retained no copies whatsoever of his out-bound correspondence or replies. As a result, while rich in detail and historical commentary, it is akin to listening to half of a conversation, and the reader is often left puzzled by the language of some of the incoming correspondence as a result.

The exchanges also reveal the astonishing generosity of the man and, in return, the generosity of many of his correspondents. Although many of the exchanges detail long-standing negative and photographic exchanges (“trades”) in detail, there are obvious gaps which cannot be explained, and it appears that an unknown number off negatives and prints which he freely loaned (and poorly documented) may never have been returned.

In a relatively small number of instances, correspondents who loaned photographs or negatives to Bowers requested their return. When these cases were identified, a concerted effort was made by TMOF staff and volunteers to (a) ascertain if the correspondent or his heirs were still alive; (b) if determined to be alive, a letter was dispatched outlining what was known, and requesting instructions on how to proceed; and (c) in several instances, the materials were returned with a cover-letter to the correspondent. In all cases, copies of the exchanges and returned materials were made for the appropriate file. In only one instance was the material undeliverable, and that document was also placed in the appropriate file.

There are several other anomalies in the series. First, there are dated exchanges, usually between one and five, for every year between 1945 and 1963, with the exceptions of the years 1947, 1949, 1952-53, and 1955. It is assumed that this dearth may be due to issues surrounding his first marriage. There are also no items of correspondence whatsoever for the year 1964, while the following year – and every year thereafter – his correspondence exploded. His most prolific correspondence years were 1976 (34 different correspondents) and the years 2000 and 2001 (both 33 correspondents), just two years before his demise.

Many of the items of correspondence contained photographs, negatives, transparencies or some combination of these. In the case of prints, the archivists photocopied them and placed the copies in the correspondence file as a cross-reference, and filed the actual in Series I in the appropriate subject file. The photographs were labeled appropriately to identify the source or correspondent, the date of the correspondence with which the image was associated, and other provenance clues. Negatives are still in the process of being separated out from this series and organized.

In a substantial number of instances, enclosures (usually photos or negatives) mentioned in the original correspondence were not found, and it is assumed that Bowers separated these for his own reasons.

Some of the correspondence was from individuals requesting either the Information Packet or the actual Plans for his “Fly Baby” home-built aircraft. However, the number of such requests does not exceed a dozen, but because far more than a dozen of these aircraft were built both in the U.S. and in foreign countries, he must have received more inquiries regarding these packets and plans. It is suspected that Bowers maintained a separate file for such orders but this has not been located, and may have been amongst the materials he lost in his storage unit fire in the 1990s.

Finally, it appears that a substantial number of items of correspondence must be missing. No correspondence whatsoever, for instance, relating to his seminal books on Curtiss, Boeing or U.S. Military Aircraft published by Putnam, were found in the other than a few purely administrative letters. He clearly would have availed himself of the assistance of his world-wide correspondents for projects of the scope encompassed by these tomes, yet they were not found at all.

Bowers clearly never made use of a personal computer or e-mail as we know it. He appears to have either typed or wrote all of his correspondence in long-hand. The content of many of these letters reveals, as the years unfold, the gradual growth in an understanding of the evolving history of aviation, but more importantly, the role that amateur enthusiasts – practical historians – played in seeing that it was recorded accurately and in depth.