Nancy Bird Walton aggregated collection of papers and pictorial material

fonds

Graphic Materials, Textual Records, Moving Images, Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Objects, Photographs, Clippings, Badges, Medals, Coins

874495

Nancy Bird Walton (1915-2009), aviator, was born in Sydney. In 1933, at the age of 17, she became the youngest Australian woman to gain a pilot's licence. One year later she obtained her commercial licence. In 1937-1938 she operated a charter service in Queensland followed by a two year world tour studying civil aviation. In 1950 she founded the Australian Women's Pilots' Association. She won the Ladies' Trophy in the South Australian Centenary Air Race from Brisbane to Adelaide in 1936 and came fifth in the American All Women's Transcontinental Air Race in 1958. In 1939 she married Charles Walton, who predeceased her in 1991. She published Born to Fly in 1961 and her autobiography, My God, It's a Woman, in 1990. Awarded an OBE in 1963, she was made an officer in the Order of Australia in 1990. Further recognition came in 2008 when Qantas named its first A380 airbus after her.

Reference:
Library correspondence file

COLLECTION 01
Nancy Bird Walton papers and photographs, 1933-1963
Presented by Nancy Bird Walton in 1963

COLLECTION 02
Nancy Bird Walton, aged 23, ca. 1939-1942 / Harold Cazneaux
Presented by Nancy Bird Walton in 1972

COLLECTION 03
Nancy Bird Walton interviews, mainly for radio, discussing her own life, aviation, air services and aviators, 1979-1982
Presented by Nancy Bird Walton in 1984

COLLECTION 04
Nancy Bird Walton further papers and photographs, ca. 1930-1995
Presented by Nancy Bird Walton in March 1995

COLLECTION 05
Nancy Bird Walton scrapbooks, 1938, ca. 1997-2001
Presented by Nancy Bird Walton in November 2001

COLLECTION 06
Nancy Bird Walton further papers, pictorial material and objects
Presented by Nancy Bird Walton in 1996 and 2008

COLLECTION 07
Nancy Bird Walton further papers, pictorial material and objects, ca. 1930-2009
Bequeathed by Nancy Bird Walton in 2009

COLLECTION 08
North Shore Times 50 years medal presented to Nancy Bird Walton
Presented by Christine Robertson (personal assistant to Nancy Bird-Walton), September 2011

See card catalogues for further collections presented by Nancy Bird Walton.