National Air and Space Museum. Archives Division. Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
The majority of the Archives Department's public reference requests can be answered using material in these files, which may be accessed through the Reading Room at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. More specific information can be requested by contacting the Archives Research Request.
National Air and Space Museum. Archives Division. Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
The majority of the Archives Department's public reference requests can be answered using material in these files, which may be accessed through the Reading Room at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. More specific information can be requested by contacting the Archives Research Request.
National Air and Space Museum. Archives Division. Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
The majority of the Archives Department's public reference requests can be answered using material in these files, which may be accessed through the Reading Room at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. More specific information can be requested by contacting the Archives Research Request.
John Matthew Miller III (born June 3, 1896) was active in aviation throughout his life, as a naval aviator, air mail pilot, transport pilot, autogiro pilot, flight instructor, aircraft manufacturer, airport operator, agricultural pilot, and helicopter test pilot, working at different times for the United States Navy, the U.S. Aerial Mail Service, Pitcairn Aeronautical Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture; from 1927-1929 Miller operated his own business, the Miller Aviation Corporation of New Brunswick, New Jersey. The collection includes Miller's pilot licenses and log books, scrapbooks, photographs, newspaper clippings and assorted ephemera, predominantly from the 1914 to 1939 period of Miller's life.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains both original materials and photocopies of materials loaned by the donor for copying. Original materials include Miller's United States Navy Naval Aviator Certificate, an aircraft log book for the Curtiss Seagull "Jacques Cartier" (owned by The Chicago Tribune), a photo album entitled "The Miller Corporation, New Brunswick Airport" featuring images of the Miller (Corp) MCA-1 Amphibian Biplane, assorted loose photographs, correspondence from Robert Woods Johnson (of Johnson & Johnson), two panoramic group photographs of the US Navy Flight A Naval Aviation detachment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1917, newspaper clippings (several covering James G. Ray's autogiro flight over Washington, DC in 1934), assorted ephemera relating to Miller's aviation career, and two bound books: Flying Officers of the U.S.N. (US Navy): 1917-1919 and Saga of the US Air Mail Service: 1918-1927, (Air Mail Pioneers, Inc., 1962). Photocopied materials include two of Miller's pilot log books, two of Miller's pilot licenses, a scrapbook, and selected pages from additional scrapbooks from which individual photographs were copied by the National Air and Space Museum in 2001. The collection also includes Smithsonian Institution numbered copy prints of these selected photographs.
Arrangement:
Materials in this collection are grouped into Series by type; materials within a series are generally arranged chronologically, grouped by subject.
Biographical / Historical:
John Matthew Miller III was born June 3, 1896, at Tacoma, Washington. As a teenager, Miller came east to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and found summer employment with the Burgess Company aircraft manufacturers at Marblehead, Massachusetts. In 1917, following the entry of the United States into World War I, Miller was accepted into the Massachusetts School for Naval Air Service (Flight A Naval Aviation detachment at MIT), and, after two months, moved on to elementary flying instruction at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and then advanced instruction at Pensacola, Florida. He was commissioned into the United States Naval Air Service as an Ensign on March 16, 1918, and stationed at Naval Air Station Rockaway Beach, New York, where he performed patrol and convoy work off New York harbor, until ordered to inactive duty on December 15, 1918. Miller promptly joined the US Aerial Mail Service; after training in Dayton Wright DH-4 air mailplanes at Belmont Park, Long Island, Miller was posted to Bustleton, Pennsylvania, as station manager. Following his two years of air mail service, Miller worked at a number of aviation jobs, including time with the America Trans Oceanic Company (Miami, Florida, 1920), survey flights in Quebec (Canada, 1922), and managing operations for Pitcairn Aeronautical Corporation at their base adjacent to Hadley Field in South Plainfield, New Jersey (the New York terminal for the New York to Chicago and New York to Atlanta air mail routes). Miller was an active member of the New Brunswick (NJ) Aero Club, owners of a Pitcairn PA-3 Orowing based at Pitcairn's field. On August 1, 1927, Miller organized the Miller Aviation Corporation, operating out of New Brunswick Airport (a.k.a. "Miller Field"), a short-lived airfield located southwest of the city of New Brunswick. Miller Aviation offered flying instruction, local sightseeing flights, and charter passenger flights in the mid-Atlantic seaboard region. In 1928-1929, the Miller Aviation Corporation designed, constructed, and tested the Miller (Corp) MCA-1 Amphibian Biplane; sadly, the aircraft crashed during its first ground landing. After his company failed, Miller returned to Pitcairn Aeronautical as an autogiro pilot, making a number of flights through the 1930s for Pitcairn, the US Department of Agriculture, and others. During World War II, Miller temporarily rejoined the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander, serving as a helicopter test pilot at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. Miller later worked for the Department of Agriculture until his retirement in 1956.
NOTE: John Matthew Miller III (born 1896, died circa 1980s), the subject of this collection, should not be confused with fellow air mail and autogiro pilot John McDonald "Johnny" Miller (1905-2008), occasionally referenced in this collection. Johnny Miller was more closely associated with the Kellett Autogiro Corp (Philadelphia, PA), and was famous for being the first to land an aircraft on the roof of a building.
Provenance:
Lee M. Gunther-Mohr, Gift, 2001, NASM.2001.0036.
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Informal group of U.S. Navy aviators, "Landing at Grant Park, Chicago, Ill., July 1919," the America Trans Oceanic Company (ATO) modified Curtiss Model H-16 "Big Fish" (1920), Pitcairn PA-3 Orowing, Pitcairn PCA-2 Autogiro, autogiro towing an advertising banner, aerial views of the John Waldron Corp. factory (New Brunswick, New Jersey), two views of Grand Central Airport (Glendale, California), and photographs of the scale wind tunnel test model and completed version of the Miller (Corp) MCA-1 Amphibian Biplane.
Collection Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Collection Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Collection Citation:
John Matthew Miller III Collection, Acc. NASM.2001.0036, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection consists of approximately 0.5 cubic feet of material relating to Clifford W. Henderson including photographs, event programs, published materials, news clippings, audio tape, and motion picture film. The photographs consist of black and white prints, mostly 8 x 10 inches in size, and a photo album of smaller black and white prints with a leather cover which measures approximately 9 x 7 inches. Besides Henderson, other notable people in the photographs include James R. Wedell; Benjamin Odell Howard; Roy Minor; Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold; Charles Edwin Thompson; Mary Pickford; Ernst Udet; Frank Hawks; Gordon Israel; H. W. "Spud" Manning; Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes; Ken Maynard; John McDonald Miller; Hoot Gibson; Amelia Mary Earhart; Steve J. Wittman; Lee Gelbach; James "Jimmy" Haizlip; Mary "Mae" Haizlip; Iris Louise McPhetridge Thaden; James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle; Roscoe Turner; Tito Falconi; and Ruth Rowland Nichols. Aircraft shown in the photographs include the Howard (Benjamin O.) DGA-4 "Mike"; Curtiss B-2 Condor; Vought O2U-1 Corsair; Northrop (Avion) Experimental No.1 (1929 Flying Wing); Keith Rider R-2 "Bumble Bee"; Israel (Gordon) "Redhead" Racer; Wedell-Williams Model 22 (NR 60Y) (Race #s: 22, 54); Keith Rider R-1 "San Francisco I"; Udet U 12 Flamingo; Pitcairn PCA-2 Autogiro; Brown (Alden) Racing (Special Monoplane Racer); Wittman (Steve) (#2) "Chief Oshkosh"; Wedell-Williams Model 44 II (NR 536V) (Race #: 92); Chester (Art) Jeep; Lockheed Model 5B Vega, Earhart Aircraft, NR7952; Wedell-Williams Model 44 (44 III) (NR 61Y) (Race #s: 2, 25, 57, 121); Brown (Lawrence) Miles-Atwood Special; Vultee V1; Stearman (1927) Model 6-A Cloudboy; Wedell-Williams Model 44 I (NR 278V) (Race #s: 44, 91); Northrop Gamma 2A "Sky Chief"; Lockheed Model 5 Vega Special (Nichols Aircraft); a Douglas Dolphin custom-built for the Vanderbilt family (A/C No. NC14208); Stearman (1927) Model 4-C Junior Speedmail; Curtiss F8C-5 (O2C-1) Helldiver; and a Caproni Ca.113. The audio tape consists of a 1/4 inch reel made in 1960 at an event celebrating the anniversary of the 1910 Dominguez Air Meet. There are 16 reels of 8mm film in the collection, all of which contain footage relating to World War II aviation. The collection also contains a reel of microfilm of an unidentified book on ballooning and early aviation, and a hard-backed promotional book for the Ford 4-AT Tri-Motor.
Biographical / Historical:
Clifford W. Henderson (1895-1984) was an aviation promoter and showman who managed the annual National Air Races from 1928 until 1939, bringing attention to the expanding field of sport aviation. Born in Iowa, Henderson graduated from the University of Southern California in 1917 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He served in the 35th Ambulance Unit, France, during World War I, before transferring to the 101st Aero Squadron where he learned to fly. After the war, Henderson returned to California and was chairman of ground arrangements for the departure and return of the Army's Around the World Flight in 1924 from Clover Field in Santa Monica. In 1928 he became Director of Aviation of Los Angeles and served as the first manager of the Los Angeles airport system. Also in 1928 Henderson became director of the National Air Races and was responsible for interesting industry leaders in competition trophies, including the Thompson, Bendix, and Grieve Trophies. He retired from managing the National Air Races in 1939. Henderson served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, rising to the rank of colonel. He played an instrumental role in planning the Burma Hump air route, and also served as military governor of Dakar in North Africa. After the war, Henderson was suffering from illness and injuries sustained in Africa, and so went to recuperate in California where he founded Palm Desert, California. He remained active in the Palm Desert community until his death in 1984.
Provenance:
Kim Dell, Gift, 2016
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
