In researching this season’s feature article, I came across a number of gate maps from NWA and Republic timetables, as well as in WorldTraveler Magazine. I scanned unique ones and have assembled them here for your trips down memory lane…
If you’re reading this, you more than likely identify as an #avgeek, and more than likely have your own collection of aviation-related materials in your office or basement. Now, imagine what it would be like if a bunch of us pooled our resources together – it might well look like the Center’s archives, housed at the Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, MN. That is to say, full of boxes, and clothing, and models…
The Center has a team of library-science students working on cataloging and archiving our vast collection, and as you can see, this is going to be a long-term project but definitely worth pursuing!
The early outlines of what we hope to provide Members, visitors, and researchers with are starting to take form now on the NWAHC website, with the launch of our Digital Archives series of pages. To start, we are posting the back-issue library of our quarterly journal, REFLECTIONS, and a large and hopefully comprehensive set of PDF scans of timetables for the Northwest family of carriers.
Those timetables of course need to be scanned by hand, but in doing so we’ll uncover all sorts of marketing and operational tidbits worthy of a blog post here or on our Facebook page, and in turn we hope to generate lively conversations with our Members and visitors!
Exciting times are ahead, and the journey has just begun.
–Scott Norris, new editor of REFLECTIONS and web content master
Join us at the Best Western Plus Hotel in Bloomington, MN, just across Killebrew Drive from the Mall of America, on Saturday, October 13th, from 9 am to 4 pm. Admission is only $5, and this year we will feature a lecture from noted aviation historian and Airways contributor David H. Stringer, talking about his new book, America’s Local Service Airlines. Safety cards, pins, timetables, models, and much, much more will be for sale – and proceeds help keep the NWA History Center running!
