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Archives at The Museum of Flight


Esther (Hutchings) Hebrew Western Airlines Flight Attendant Collection

 Collection
Identifier: 2021-12-10
The Esther (Hutchings) Hebrew Western Airlines Flight Attendant Collection consists of textual and visual materials gathered by Hebrew during her career as a stewardess for Western Airlines (WAL) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The materials illuminate the work and life of flight attendants in the mid-twentieth century. The collection is organized in two series: Western Airlines career-related materials and other airlines.

There are several files of textual materials related to Hebrew's career as a flight attendant, such as business cards; correspondence and memos regarding company policies, pay, and Hebrew's performance; a press release regarding a strike; documents from the Air Line Stewards and Stewardesses Association International regarding pay negotiation and strikes; stewardess reports of holding time; trip passes; and uniform guidelines for stewardesses. Hebrew collected a variety of printed ephemera related to Western Airlines such as luggage tags, decals, an inflight packet, "seat occupied" cards, brochures, postcards, and a poster advertising reduced fares due to the discontinuation of free meal service. There are also two folders of clippings: one related to celebrities who flew on Western, the second on women and stewardesses. Some personal correspondence is also present including a telegraph from her husband and notes from other women who were presumably colleagues.

There are also a few photographs in the collection. These depict WAL crew loading packages onto Western planes, a group portrait of a crew, unidentified people disembarking a plane, and an unidentified plane crash. All the images are black-and-white and are unidentified, although two of the images may depict Hebrew.

The collection also includes printed ephemera that Hebrew collected from other airlines including Alaska, Chicago and Southern, Frontier, Northwest, Pacific Northern, Pan American, and United.

Dates

  • 1945-1951, undated

Creator

Language of Materials

All materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research and is accessible in the Dahlberg Research Center by appointment. For more information contact us.

Conditions Governing Use

The Museum of Flight (TMOF) Archives is the owner of the physical materials in the archives and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from TMOF archives before any publication use. TMOF does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners. Consult repository for more details.

Extent

.5 Cubic Feet (1 legal size full width document box, 1 oversize folder)

Biographical Note: Esther (Hutchings) Hebrew

Esther Hutchings Hebrew was a stewardess for Western Airlines from 1946-1952.

Esther Hutchings was born Februray 23, 1922 in Lehi, Utah to John and Eunice Mary (Colledge) Hutchings. She attended Lehi High School and earned her Bachelor's degree in nursing from Brigham Young University. She then worked as a stewardess and flight nurse for Western Airlines flying routes in Alaska, Montana and Canada. She flew aboard Douglas DC-3s and DC-9s and Lockheed Contellations. She also served in the Air Force WAC Reserves as a flight nurse.

She was married to Quey Chester Hebrew. She died September 5, 2010 in Lehi and is buried in Lehi City Cemetery.

Biographical note derived from donor information and records on Ancestry.com.

Arrangement

The materials were organized into two series, Western Airlines career-related and Other Airlines. The career-related materials were organized by format and filed alphabetically. The materials related to other airlines were organized by airline and also filed alphabetically.

Accruals

No further accruals are expected.

Separated Materials

The following items have been separated from the archival component of this collection and are kept in Objects storage:

  • WAL pepper shaker
  • PAA sugar packet
  • Nameplate, "Miss Hutchings"
  • Button, "Westsern Airlines Fiftieth Anniversary, 1926-1976"
  • Calendar, WAL 25th anniversary
  • Pin, WAL 25th anniversary
  • Patch, WAL 20th anniversary
  • Airplane model, United Mainliner 300 (DC-6)


The following titles have been separated from the archival component of this collection and are kept in the Library:
  • Air Line Pilot, August 1977
  • Air Lines Stewardess Association News, undated
  • Airlanes, January 1949
  • The Flying Years: A History of America’s Pioneer Airline, 1946
  • Standard of California, 1946
  • Western Air Lines News, multiple issues
  • Western Aire, multiple issues


Additional materials were transferred to the Technical Files and Trade Literature Collections. For more information, contact us.
Title
Guide to the Esther (Hutchings) Hebrew Western Airlines Flight Attendant Collection
Status
Completed - Level 3
Author
Nicole Davis
Date
2022
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
English
Edition statement
1st edition

Repository Details

Part of the The Museum of Flight Archives Repository

Contact:
9404 East Marginal Way South
Seattle Washington 98108-4097
206-764-7874


The Museum of Flight | 9404 E. Marginal Way South | Seattle WA 98108-4097 | 206-764-5874
Contact us with a research request
curator@museumofflight.org