Harriet Quimby
"The men flyers have given out the impression that aeroplaning is very perilous work, something that an ordinary mortal should not dream of attempting. But when I saw how easily the man flyers manipulated their machines I said I could fly "-Harriet Quimby
Harriet Quimby first woman to fly across the Channel 4/16/1912. Image from: Giacinta Koontz
Harriet Quimby was the first American woman to earn a pilot’s license in 1911
(flew at night) and
the first women to fly across the English Channel 1912. Quimby was
driven to prove a point during an unstable time when the suffrage
movement was in full force. Men were not used to unmarried bold women
who drove a car and flew a mono-plane. An anti-suffrage New York Times
reporter printed:
"The flight (over the English Channel) is now hardly anything more than proof of ordinary professional competency.... Of course it still proves ability and capacity, but it does not prove equality."
"The flight (over the English Channel) is now hardly anything more than proof of ordinary professional competency.... Of course it still proves ability and capacity, but it does not prove equality."
"I was annoyed from the start by the attitude of doubt by the spectators that I would never really make the flight. This attitude made me more determined than ever to succeed."— Harriet Quimby, just prior to her flight across the English Channel, 1912.
Suffrage headquarters for women's rights
The sign on the Cleveland, Ohio suffrage headquarters calls for the ‘Men of Ohio’ to vote for amendment 23 in the September 3, 1912 election. Image from an original 1912. Image from Bain news agency.
"Although Quimby was not a suffragette, she did champion many women's issues. During her journalism career, she wrote articles about child welfare and political corruption and vice in New York City. She also pressed for an expanded role for women aviators." -David H. Onkst
" There is no reason why the aeroplane should not open up a fruitful occupation for women. I see no reason they cannot realize handsome incomes by carrying passengers between adjacent towns, from parcel delivery, taking photographs or conducting schools of flying. Any of these things it is now possible to do". -Harriet Quimby
1912 Harriet on the day of her historic flight across the Channel next to Blériot plane. Dressed in a flying suit of her trademark, purple wool-back satin, she wore two pairs of silk combinations underneath. Over the apparel, she wore a long woolen coat, an ‘American raincoat’ all topped with sealskin stole. Image from: of Giacinta Bradley Koontz
"Harriet drove a car when women were not supposed to. I think her example added to the changing dynamic of what women could do in the post-Victorian age. She traveled the world as an unmarried woman unescorted (she had a friend and fellow pilot A. Leo Stevens who sometimes traveled with her) as far as Egypt and became a photographer photographing her journeys for Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. I personally think that her best trait was she never responded to her critics and there were many. She just kept doing what she wanted to do in spite of the negative critics that were all around her." -Henry Holden-Interview with Keri Kittleson