The Clayton Scott Aviation Collection documents the aviation career and personal life of pilot, Clayton L. Scott (CLS). This collection is comprised of textual documents and visual materials that date from 1904 to 2006.

The textual documents include flight logs, certificates, awards, membership cards, business cards, a rolodex, pilot licenses, permits, bulletins, handwritten notes, clippings, passenger ticket, correspondence, price lists, flight logs, engine logbooks, financial records, certification lists, insurance policy, invoices, receipts, hangar lease agreement, product advertisements, company letterhead, poems, travel brochures, postcards, programs, invitations, dinner menu, training materials, and CLS’s Jefferson High School yearbook. The visual materials include photographic prints, photographic negatives, slides, technical diagrams, hand-drawn illustrations, and maps.

The collection has been arranged into three series: Professional Pilot Career (1927-1961), Jobmaster Company (1919-2005), and Personal (1904-2006).

Series I. Professional Pilot Career is the smallest portion of the collection, spanning five folders. The documents within these files bring to light CLS’s pilot career throughout the Pacific Northwest region. The materials consist of 44 black-and-white photographs, 9 hand-colored photographs, correspondence, flight logs, booklet, course materials, passenger ticket, takeoff checklist, CLS business cards, and clippings.

The documents illustrate CLS's early days in the field of aviation starting in 1926 when he began working for Vern Gorst’s company, Pacific Air Transport, followed by Seattle Flying Service, Gorst Air Transport's Seattle Air Ferry, and Gorst Air Transport out Cordova, Alaska. There are photographs of CLS and other pilots from this time period, images of then Pier 3 and Pier 5 along the Seattle waterfront where Gorst ran passenger ferries. In addition, there are images of CLS’s time running ferries from Cordova Bay during the early 1930s.

Following his employment with Vern Gorst, CLS became William B. Boeing’s personal pilot from 1931 to 1944. There are only a handful of records related to this part of CLS’s pilot career. Included in the file is a Douglas DC-5 booklet that contains images of the aircraft, as well as clippings and handwritten notes adhered to the inside of the cover and a card from Boeing. In addition to the booklet, there are photographs of CLS in uniform, images of Boeing’s personal Douglas Dolphin amphibious flying boat, images of William Boeing, and a photograph of Tezzeron Lake, British Columbia, with Bertha Boeing's name written in pencil near the bottom of the image.

In 1944, CLS began working as a production test pilot for the Boeing Company. The files connected to his employment with the company include correspondence, CLS’s business cards, a flight log of his flight tests of the B-29 and B-17, training material, clippings, list of flight test personnel, and images the aircraft in flight, featured with crew members, and CLS standing in front of the aircraft.

Series II. Jobmaster Company contains both textual documents and visual materials that date from 1919 to 2005. The textual documents capture the administrative operations of the company and consist of aircraft registration, certification lists, insurance policy, correspondence, certificate, invoices, receipts, lease agreement, product advertisements, company letterhead, photograph, rolodex, and business cards. There are a small number of textual documents pertaining to floatplane conversions conducted by the company such as correspondence, conversion summaries, reports, logbooks, and technical diagrams. The remaining materials are made up of visual materials, with a total of 197 photographic prints, 53 negatives, and 10 slides. These images document the conversions conducted by the Jobmaster Company, the company’s workshop, as well as products and equipment used during projects. Some key floatplane conversions illustrated are of the Cessna 195, the de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, and conversions of Howard DGA aircraft.

Series III. Personal makes up the bulk of the collection, with 208 photographs, 53 negatives, and 10 slides, as well as certificates, awards, a typed speech, identification records, financial records, a radio permit, pilot certification cards, clippings, correspondence, decals, membership cards, booklet of scrips, rules booklet, bulletins, invitation, programs, poems, business card, travel brochures, postcards, and a dinner menu. In addition, there are numerous handwritten notes by CLS.

The series begins with materials that bring to light aspects of CLS’s early years such images of his parents, CLS’s Boy Scotts of America membership card, and his Jefferson High School yearbook. In addition, there are materials related to CLS's father, Albert Scott, including a grocery store accounting book and personal travel notebook with pencil drawings.

The remaining materials in the series reflect upon CLS’s relationships with his wife Myrtle Irene Scott, other family members, his close friends, and his participation in aviation associations like Quiet Birdmen and the OX5 Aviation Pioneers within Seattle. The images capture candid moments of CLS’s social life, from his travels with family, his many fishing and camping adventures throughout the Pacific Northwest with other pilots like Dick Taylor, Don Knutson, and Palmer Lewis, to his CLS’s 80th, 95th, and 99th birthday celebrations with the many people in his life. There is also a sampling of aviation events that CLS attended like the World Aerobatic Championship, Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1980.