Wanda Smith Flight Attendant Collection

Collection — Folder: 1

Identifier: 2022-04-16

The Wanda Smith Flight Attendant Collection is a small collection consisting of photographs and clippings documenting Smith's career as a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines and Western Airlines in the 1950s and 1960s.

The collection includes seven photographs of Smith in her Eastern Airlines uniform, including six formal individual portraits of her and one group portrait of her with several other flight attendants, circa 1956. There are also thirteen photographs of Smith and her colleagues in Western Airlines flight attendant uniforms. These images include formal group portraits, circa 1955; Smith receiving her wings upon graduation from flight attendant school, 1955; and "starduster" alumni flight attendants doing publicity photo shoots in uniform at the Los Angeles, California airport circa 1960s. Additionally, there are four casual snapshots of Smith with other flight attendant friends, not in uniform or on the job. One was taken at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. All photographs except for one snapshot are black-and-white prints; a few prints are digital reprints duplicating other vintage prints in the collection. Many of the photographs have handwritten captions and identifications on their versos, though it is unknown who wrote the captions. Some of the photographs are dated 1955-1957, however some of these dates appear to be erroneous as the style of uniforms depicted in some images appear to be from the 1960s.

Two undated clippings are also present; one depicts Smith and two other "starduster" flight attendants and the other depicts flight attendants from Pan American airlines.

Dates

1955-circa 1960s

Creator

Smith, Wanda Sue (Thomas), 1933-1997 (Person)

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

.01 Cubic Feet (1 letter size folder)

Additional Description

Separated Materials

One beige Western Airlines uniform and accessories and one Navy blue Eastern Airlines uniform and accessories were separated from the archival component of this collection and are kept in Objects storage. Please contact us for more details.