Collections logo strip
PMH Collections Quarterly

                                                            Fall 2013


In This Issue
New Loan
Archives Feature
Collections Feature
Fenyes Feature
New Loan
 
A Pasadena WASP

 

Image: Lorraine Fiedler (1918-2004), Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas, 1943

(Image courtesy of the Raymond Family)

 

In 1942, the U.S. Army put out a call for female pilots to join a newly formed organization called the Women's Air Service Pilots, or WASPs. More than 25,000 women applied. Lorraine Fiedler, a young Pasadenan, was accepted into the training program in Sweetwater, Texas and received her wings six months later. WASPs flew domestic missions, freeing up male pilots to serve in combat overseas. Over 1,000 women served as WASPs during WWII.

 

Lorraine's story, along with those of other Pasadena aviators, will be featured in the upcoming exhibit titled Kites, Wings, and Other Flying Things, which opens at PMH on November 20, 2013.

  
Quick Links...

Library & Archives
Join Our Mailing List
You can also keep up with PMH on the following sites:

Find us on Facebook    Follow us on Twitter    View our videos on YouTube

About the Collections

 

PMH maintains the area's largest and most comprehensive collection of documents and artifacts relating to the history of Pasadena and neighboring communities.  

 

The ever-expanding collection spans the years 1834 to the present and contains well over one million historic photographs, rare books, manuscripts, maps,  architectural records, art, costumes and textiles, and objects.  

 

The Mission of the Museum is to promote an appreciation of history, culture, arts, and sciences relevant to Pasadena and adjoining communities.    

The Collections Quarterly, sent out four times a year, features new acquisitions and loans as well as select items from the Archives, art and artifacts collection, and the Fenyes-Curtin-Paloheimo collections. 
Archives Feature
 
Colorado Street Bridge

 

   

Pasadena has always been a beautiful and modern city. What made it easily accessible besides the railroads was the Colorado Street Bridge, also known as the Arroyo Seco Bridge. The Archives houses an ephemera file on the Colorado Street Bridge that contains a treasure trove on the history of the bridge. You can learn details such as who the architect of the bridge was, how much it cost to build in 1913 and to restore in 1993, why the bridge curves, and more. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the bridge became infamous for the suicides and came to be known as "suicide bridge." There are some fascinating stories about it in the ephemera. The Archives also has a clippings file on the bridge and many beautiful pictures in the collections.  

 

Come on in and learn about the Colorado Street Bridge, which turns 100 this year. The Research Library and Archives is open Thursdays through Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. No appointment necessary.

 

This invitation will be on display in next month's The Colorado Street Bridge Centennial Exhibition.   

 

 

 

 

Images: Invitation for rededication ceremony for Colorado Street Bridge, 1993. (Ephemera Box 28 - Colorado Street Bridge)

 

Collections Feature

The New Bridge by Jane Giddings Carmichael           

 

 

 

Jane Giddings Carmichael created this sketch of the Pasadena Pioneers Bridge, along with the Colorado Street Bridge and the surrounding Arroyo, in 1953. A note underneath her signature indicates that the sketch was done as a cover drawing for the dedication of the new bridge.
 
The Pasadena Pioneers Bridge, also known as the 134 Freeway, was built just north of the historic Colorado Street Bridge. The newer six-lane bridge, which was dedicated forty years after the first, cost $6,000,000 - to compare, the Colorado Street Bridge cost approximately $200,000 to build in 1912/13. 

This sketch, along with other historic and contemporary artwork featuring the Colorado Street Bridge, will also be on display in The Colorado Street Bridge Centennial Exhibition.
 

 

Image: Jane Giddings Carmichael (1925-2005). "For the Dedication of the New Bridge," 1953.  Ink on paper, 20.75 x 29 inches

 

Fenyes Feature
 

Eva Fenyes and the Spirit of St. Louis

 

 

 

On September 25, 1927, Eva Fenyes joined the crowd of Santa Fe spectators who had gathered to welcome Charles Lindberg and the Spirit of St. Louis on their national tour sponsored by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. The three month tour also promoted Lindberg's book We, published in July just months after his famous transatlantic flight. Here is Eva's account of the Santa Fe, New Mexico landing:

 

"We took an early lunch, gathered up the maids & treked [sic] for the aviation field to meet Charles Lindberg. I just had time to get a little sketch of the field & the waiting crowd when "We" & its pilot arrived. There were thousands of autos from all parts of N.M. & other states. A well-behaved crowd. Lindy stood up in an auto - greeted us all & then made a tour of the field. I could almost have shaken hands, he seemed so near me - (in an auto). I had given my camera to Babs to shoot Lindy, but she missed her opportunity. However, I have him in my sketch (as big as a pin) & afterwards I made a hasty drawing of the 'City of St. Louis.'"

 - Letter, Eva Fenyes to Adalbert Fenyes, 25 September 1927. (PMH Archives, FCP.12.17)

 

 

Image: Eva Scott Fenyes (1849-1930). Spirit of St. Louis, 25 September 1927. Ink and watercolor on paper, 7 x 10 inches (ESF.014.3803)