Research Guides

Pan Am Collections Guide


About Pan Am
Pan American Airways, as it was then named, was founded by twenty-eight year old Juan T. Trippe. It began operations on October 28, 1927, the first scheduled international flight by a United States airline. A small wood and fabric Fokker trimotor airplane loaded with mail sacks took off from a dirt runway in Key West, Florida, and landed one hour and ten minutes later in Havana, Cuba, a distance of ninety miles.

Within three months the airline transported passengers on a daily schedule between Florida and Cuba. Initial success encouraged the acquisition of new aircraft, employees and routes -- to the Caribbean islands, Mexico, Central America and South America. In 1928, Trippe engaged the services of Charles A. Lindbergh, and the famed American aviator served as a technical advisor to Pan Am for forty-five years. Lindbergh was instrumental in determining the transatlantic routes.

Pan Am proved to be an airline of many "firsts." On November 22, 1935, the "China Clipper," a Martin flying boat built to Pan Am's specifications departed from San Francisco and began a six day journey to Manila, completing the first transpacific flight. In May, 1939, the "Yankee Clipper," a Boeing B-314 also designed and built for Pan Am, completed a New York - Lisbon - Marseille route that inaugurated transatlantic flights. In 1942 Pan Am also completed the first successful around the world flight.

The post-war period saw many technical improvements in aviation, including the introduction of the Douglas DC-4, the Lockheed Constellation, the Boeing Stratocruiser and the Douglas DC-6 and DC-7. By 1947, after only two decades of operation, Pan Am employed 19,000 people in sixty-two countries. In 1950, shortly after beginning around the world service and developing the concept of "economy class" passenger service, Pan American Airways changed its name to Pan American World Airways, Inc.

By this time, it was so famous that in 1964 it began accepting reservations to the moon and in 1968 Stanley Kubrick featured it in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” And in 1963, it built what was then the largest commercial office building in the world, the 59-story Pan Am Building (now MetLife Building) in New York City.

Pan Am continued to influence commercial aviation service, and in 1970 the airline carried 11 million passengers almost twenty billion miles. Pan Am was the first airline to order the Boeing 747 jumbo jet, a plane that flew more passengers faster, higher and farther than its predecessors.

In 1976, Pan Am introduced the Boeing 747 SP, a special performance aircraft that extended the range of commercial flights and allowed Pan Am to inaugurate non-stop flights to the far corners of the world. On May 1, 1976, Pan Am's "Liberty Clipper," one of the new 747 SP's, left New York and travelled east on a record breaking around the world trip. With ninety-six passengers and only two re-fueling stops -- at Delhi and Tokyo -- the flight arrived back in New York only forty-six hours from departure, besting the previous mark by some fifteen hours. The airline celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1977 with another first, this time around the flight covered 26,300 miles in a little more than fifty-four hours.

In the late 1970s Pan Am began exploring domestic flights. In January, 1980, it merged with National Airlines. However, the increases in worldwide fuel costs, deregulation of the airline industry, fragile global economy, and rise in world terrorism of the 1970s and ‘80s all took a toll on the company. Following a series of organizational restructures and unsuccessful initiatives designed to improve the economic performance of the company, Pan American World Airways, Inc., ceased operations in 1991. 
About the Pan Am Collection
The University of Miami Libraries Special Collections is home to over 1,600 linear feet of material pertaining to Pan American World Airways. By far the largest group of records in the collection is the corporate records acquired at the time of bankruptcy. Measuring 1,500 linear feet, they document the company's founding in 1927 through its closing in 1991. Special Collections also houses a substantial quantity of materials received as gifts from former employees or relatives of former employees, inlcuding photographs, brochures, pamphlets, scrapbooks and other archival material. Additionally, Richter Library houses hundreds of Pan Am books, periodicals and videos. 

 

Request a Collection
Located on the 8th floor of the Otto G. Richter Library, Special Collections is open for research Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and encourages use of the Pan Am Collections. To use a collection, create an account with Aeon, the online user request management system for Special Collections and UM Libraries, and sumbit a request. All Special Collections materials are room use only, therefore researchers will be required to visit Special Collections. Please don't hesitate to email us with any questions or comments.
Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records
The Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records collection is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of aviation history in the country. The 1,500 box collection provides a unique lens into the life of a pioneer airline that captured the hearts and imaginations of past and present travelers and historians, as well as evidence of human actions and transactions that helped shape the twentieth century. Administrative, legal, financial, technical, and promotional materials as well as internal publications, photographs, audiovisual material and graphic material form this vast resource, which is open for research. 

To view the collection, please submit a request via Aeon, the online user request management system for Special Collections and UM Libraries. Due to the fragile nature of our collections, all Special Collections materials are room use only.

These resources will help you understand how the collection was created and how it has been organized:
"Cleared to Land" the Digital Exhibit
"Cleared to Land: The Records of the Pan American World Airways, Inc." was the culmination of a cataloguing effort supported by a grant from the National Historical Publications & Records Commission to process the Pan Am corporate records. It features many images as well as useful information for researching the collection, such as information about the collection's provenance.
Pan Am, Inc. Adjacent Collections
Beyond the Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records, Special Collections houses additional Pan Am collections, spanning over 150 linear feet, donated by people and organizations connected to the company. To view a collection, please submit a request via Aeon for the materials to be made available for you in the Univeristy of Miami Special Collections. Due to the fragile nature of our collections, all Special Collections materials are room use only.

Althea "Gerry" Lister papers
Basil Rowe papers, 1940-1950
Charles Lorber papers 
Clipper Pioneers Collection
David Abrams papers
Dolores Pla Menocal Photograph Collection
Donald K. Usher papers
Donald W. Thomson Papers, 1932-1976
Dorothy Brannen Thomas Collection, 1942-1948
Dorothy E. Mills Collection, 1945-1997
F. Charles Ruegg Papers, 1940-1980
Frank Marion Briggs papers
Humphrey W. Toomey Papers, 1929-1961
Ione Wright Papers, 1816-1986
J. H. Brown Papers, 1940s
J.T. Carlson papers
James Wendler Collection, 1932
John G. Borger Papers, 1902-2005
Kimball J. Scribner Collection
L. J. Easterbrook Papers, 1948-1968
Leonard Albasi/Gill Family Collection, 1937
Leuder, Price, Ortiz-Bello, Williamson papers
Louis J. Hector Papers, 1957-2000
Lucy Desrosiers papers
Pan Am Advertisements
Pan Am Historical Foundation records, 2012
Port Washington Public Library Oral History Collection, 1981, 1993
R. A. Seymour Papers, 1941-1993
R. Hoit photographs collection
Randy Liebermann Collection, 1929-1989
Richard L. Kruse papers
Roy Keeler Collection, 1915-1981
Sidney Serebreny Papers, circa 1950
Vincent A. Jablon Papers, 1925-1965
W.R. Peters Pan Am photographs collection
William C. House Papers
William J. McEvoy Papers, circa 1936-1950s
William L. Witherspoon papers
World Wings International Records
Audio-Visual Material
A sample of our Pan Am audio-visual material is available on the Special Collection's YouTube Channel.
Internal Organs
Pan American World Airways, Inc.  published many periodicals, including employee newsletters, which it called “internal organs,” as well as travel guides and in-flight magazines. Listed below are the more than one hundred periodical titles found in the Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records collection, most of which are internal organs. To view a collection, please submit a request via Aeon for the materials to be made available for you in the Univeristy of Miami Special Collections. Due to the fragile nature of our collections, all Special Collections materials are room use only.

Downloadable periodicals list spreadsheet

747 Newsletter
Africa News Letter
Airport Service Newsletter
Airport Services Straight Line
Annual Reports (Avianca)
Annual Reports (Compania Cubana de Aviación)
Annual Reports (New York Airways)
Annual Reports (Pacific Alaska Division)
Annual Reports (Panair do Brasil)
Annual Reports (Pan Am Corporation)
Aware Times
Blue Book of Clipper Travel
Bulletin
Caminos del Aire
Ciao Tours
Classroom Clipper
Clipper (Atlantic Division)
Clipper (Havana, Cuba)
Clipper (Latin American Division)
Clipper Aerospace Services Division
Clipper British Style
Clipper Cargo Horizons
Clipper Cockpit
Clipper Guide (London)
Clipper Guide (Johannesburg)
Clipper Magazine
Clipper News from Treasure Island
Clipper Western European Style
Clipper (Pacific-Alaska Division)
Clipper (Systems General Office)
Clipper Travel
Clipper Western European Style
Clipperwise (Rome, Italy)
Clipperwise (Tokyo, Japan)
Consumer Action
Contrails
Crosscheck: Pan Am Flight Safety Dialogue
Customer Service Highlights
Digest of Alaska News
DSO Newsletter
EETF (Electronic Environmental Task Force) Outlook
EPIC (Employee Product Improvement Campaign)
ESOP Clipper
Executive Office Memorandum
Executive System Memorandum
Fan Jet Falcon
Flight Crew Bulletin
Flight Notes
Flight Ops
Flight Service Hi-Lites
Flight Service Magazine
Flight Service Monthly Operational Bulletin
Frequent Traveler System
GMRD Clipper
Ground Ops
In Focus: A briefing for all management
Intercom
Intercontinental News
International Affairs Bulletin
Jet Journal of Knowledge
The Jet Set
Language Tieline
Maintenance Department Employees’ News Letter
Management Bulletin
Management Memo
Management Monthly
Management Newsletter (Latin American Division)
New Horizons
New York Division News
New Yorker In-Flight Service JFK
News Digest (Executive Staff)
News from Pan Am Southwest Region
News LAX Style
Northeast News
Notes from Headquarters and Around the World
PAA Fares and Ticketing Guide
PAA MEC Newsletter
Pan Alaska News
Pan Am Clipper (Pan American World Airways, Inc.)
Pan Am Clipper magazine
Pan Am Goes National Merger Briefing
Pan Am Holiday World Book
Pan Am Holidays Europe
Pan Am News
Pan Am News Briefs (Aerospace Services Division)
Pan Am News Catering Services
Pan Am News Letter
Pan Am Newsgram Southern Region
Pan Am Newsletter
Pan American Air Ways
Pan American Athletic and Social Club
Pan American Clipper New York
Pan American Clipper (Alaska Sector)
Pan American Clipper (Eastern Division)
Pan American Clipper (New York)
Pan American World Airways Teacher
Pan Americana
Pan Am's Calendar of Overseas Events
Pan Am's World Tours
Panamia
Panopus
Passenger Service Briefs
Passenger Service Bulletin Progress
Personnel Information Bulletin
Pride: News about Employee Circles
Pride: the Employee Newsmagazine for Pan Am World Services, Inc.
Progress
Public Affairs Report published by Pan Am pilots
Quipper
Report to Employees
Research Review
Reve News
Sales Clipper
Sales/Service Bulletin
Service Newsletter Overseas Division
SFO 73
Skywriter
SST Newsletter
System Sales Clipper
Those Senor Letters
Traffic and Sales Clipper
Trainers Talk
Transpacific (Transpacific Division Pan American Airways)
Travel Talk
U.S. Sales Clipper
Weekly News Bulletin (Pacific Division)
Welcome to New York
Wing Tips
World Services News
WorldPass Bulletin
Worldwide Marketing Horizons
Book Search
Other Resources
General

Banning, Eugene.  Airlines of Pan Am since 1927.  McLean, Va.: Paladwr Press, 2001.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 B36 2001.
Note: Covers foreign companies operated by Pan Am.

Bender, Marilyn and Selig Altschul.  The chosen instrument: Pan Am, Juan Trippe, the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 B46 1982.

Conrad, Barnaby.  Pan Am: an aviation legend.  Emeryville, CA:  Woodford Press, 1999.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 C76 1999.

Daley, Robert.   An American saga: Juan Trippe and his Pan Am empire.  New York:  Random House, 1980.  Richter Stacks TL540.T7 D34 1980.

Davies, R. E. G.  Pan Am: an airline and its aircraft.  Twickenham, England: Hamlyn, 1987.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 D38 1987.
Note: Illustrated by Mike Machat, this volume covers all aircraft flown by Pan Am.  Includes those aircraft the company planned for, but never flew, as well.  Essential book for all Pan Am collections; it is to date the foremost Pan Am reference book.

Death of an American dream: the Pan Am story. Videocassette. Boca Raton, FL: Stepping Stone Productions, 1992.  Richter SpecForm Videos VID 3709.

Gandt, Robert L.  Skygods: the fall of Pan Am.  New York: William Morrow, 1995.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 G36 1995.
Note: Reprint edition also published by Paladwr Press.  Good introduction to Pan Am for the general reader.  Author offers a controversial but well-defended, thesis.

Homan, Lynn M. and Thomas Reilly.  Images of aviation: Pan Am.  Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2000.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 H65 2000.

Josephson, Matthew. Empire of the air: Juan Trippe and the struggle for world airways. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1944.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll TL540.T7 J6.

Pan Am: the complete series. DVD. Culver City, Calif: Sony Pictures Television, 2013.  PN1992.77 .P36 2013

Robinson, Jack E.  American Icarus: the majestic rise and tragic fall of Pan Am.  Baltimore MD: Noble House, 1994.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 R63 1994.

Thomas, W. Donald.  Nostalgia Panamericana: selling romance in color.  Dunedin FL: W. D. Thomas, 1987.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 T48 1987

Thomas, W. Donald.  Poster art of the airlines: featuring Pan American Airways, its associates, and its contemporary competitors, U.S. and foreign.  Dunedin FL: W. D. Thomas, 1989.  Spec Coll NC1849.A35 P67 1989.

Turner, Paul St. John.  Pictorial history of Pan American World Airways.  London: Allan, 1973.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803P36 T87.

Williams, Brad.  The anatomy of an airline.  Garden City NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1970.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803.N3 W5.
Note: A study of National Airlines.

Vriesenga, Michael Peter. The Pan American Airways/Army Air Corps School of Navigation at the University of Miami, 1940-1944. Thesis (M.A.). California State University, 1990.  UM Archives UG638.3.F6 V7 1990.

Pan Am Aircraft

Allen, Roy.  The Pan Am clipper: the history of Pan American’s Flying-Boats 1931to 1946.  New York:  Barnes & Noble Books, 2000.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 A7 2000.

Allward, Maurice.  An illustrated history of seaplanes and flying boats. Moorland Publishing Co., 1981; Dorset Press, 1988; Barnes & Noble, 1993.  Richter Stacks TL 684 A44

Cohen Stan.  Wings to the Orient:  Pan American clipper planes, 1935-1945: a pictorial history.  Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co.,1985.  Richter Stacks HE9803.P36 C64 1985.

Gandt, Robert L.  China clipper: the age of the great flying boats.  Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 1991.  Richter Stacks TL684.2.G36 1991.
Note: Focuses primarily the Martin M-130.

Ingalls, Douglas J. The plane that changed the world: a biography of the DC-3. Fallbrook, Calif.: Aero Publishers 1966.  Spec Coll Reference TL686.D65 I5 1966.

Jablonski, Edward.  Seawings: the romance of the flying boats.  Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1972.  Richter Stacks TL684.2.J3.

Klass, M. D.  Last of the flying clippers; the Boeing 314 story.  Altglen, PA:  Schiffer Publishing, 1997.  Spec Coll Reference TL 784 K63 1997.
Note: Detailed book about the history and operations of all twelve B314 flying boats.  Well illustrated.

Kuter, Laurence S.  The great gamble: the Boeing 747; the Boeing-Pan Am Project to develop, produce, and introduce the 747.  University: University of Alabama Press, 1974.  Richter Stacks TL686.B65 K87.

Levering, Robert.  The Clipper heritage.  Np: Inter-Collegiate Press for the Air Line Pilots Association of Pan American Airways, 1984.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 L49 1984.

Mahoney, Lawrence.  The early birds: a history of Pan Am’s Clipper ships.  Miami: Pickereing Press, 1987.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 M35 1987.

Mansfield, Harold.  Vision; a saga of the sky.  New York:  Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1956.  Richter Stacks TL 724.5 B6 M3.
Note: Boeing corporate history.  Very good account of the design and testing of the Boeing 314, 307 Stratoliner, 377 Stratocruiser, and the early days of the 707 based on interviews with the principal parties involved, including Pan Am executives and pilots.  –Eric Nabstedt

Reilly, Vincent D. A life of flight : forty flights and forty nights aboard DC-3s to B-747s. Philadelphia, Pa: Xlibris Corporation, 2007. Spec Coll Reference TL540.R378 A3 2007 

Sikorsky, Igor Ivan.  The story of the winged-S: an autobiography. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1938. Spec Coll Reference TL540.S54 A3 1938.

Shodell, Elly. Flight of memory: Long Island’s aeronautical past. Port Washington, N.Y.: Port Washington Public Library, c1995.  Spec Coll Reference TL522.N7 S5 1995.
Note: Oral history series.

Taylor, Barry.  Pan American’s ocean clippers.  Blue Ride Summit PA: Aero, 1991.  Richter Stacks HE9803.P36 T39 1991.

Trautman, James. Pan American Clippers: the golden age of flying boats. Erin, Ont: Boston Mills Press, 2007.  HE9803.P36 T7 2007

Pan Am and its Airlines in Asia

Banning, Gene.  Airlines of Pan American since 1927: its airlines, its people, and its aircraft. Paladwr Press, 2001. Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 B36 2001.
Note: Covers foreign companies operated by Pan Am.

Bond, W. Langhorne.  Wings for an embattled China. Bethlehem, [Pa.]: Lehigh University Press, 2001. Spec Coll HE9878.A3 B66 2001.
Note: Memoir by Pan Am vice president who spent most of his career in China running CNAC.

China Clipper: Pan Am’s conquest of the Pacific.  Videocassette. [Los Angeles?]: Huell Howser Productions, 1998?.  Richter SpecForm Videos VID 3563.

Cohen Stan.  Wings to the Orient:  Pan American clipper planes, 1935-1945: a pictorial history.  Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co.,1985.  Richter Stacks HE9803.P36 C64 1985.

Jackson, Ronald W.  China clipper.  New York: Everest House, 1979.  Richter Stacks HE9803.P36 J3 1979.
Note: This book focuses on the how Pan Am developed the Pacific air route to China.  The author’s other, perhaps primary interest is the disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper in 1938.

Krupnick, Jon E.  Pan American’s Pacific pioneers: a pictorial history of Pan Am’s Pacific first flights, 1935-1946: Pan American Clippers unite the Pacific Rim, 1935-1946.  Missoula MT: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., 1997.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 K78 1997.
Note:  Issued in a revised edition: Pan American’s Pacific pioneers: the rest of the story: a pictorial history of Pan Am’s Pacific first flights 1935-1946.  Missoula MT: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., 2000.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 K78 2000.
Note: An essential book for any Pan Am memorabilia collector.  The revised edition is significantly expanded.

Leary, William M. The dragon’s wings: the China National Aviation Corporation and the development of commercial aviation in China. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1976.  Richter Stacks HE9870.C5 L4.

Pan Am and its Airlines in Latin America

Krusen, William et al.  Flying the Andes: the story of Pan American Grace Airways.  Tampa: University of Tampa Press, 1997.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P35 K78 1997.

Newton, Wesley P.  The perilous sky: U.S. aviation diplomacy and Latin America, 1919-1931.  Richter Stacks and UM Archives HE9815.5.A3 N48.

O’Neill, Ralph A.  A dream of eagles.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll HE9803.N45 O53.
Note: Author owned New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires airline.

Shea, Andrew B.  Panagra: Linking the Americas during 25 Years.  New York: Newcomen Society in North America, 1954.

Pan Am in Africa

Culbert, Tom and Andy Dawson.  PanAfrica: across the Sahara in 1941 with Pan Am.  McLean VA: Paladwr Press, 1998.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 C8 1998.
Note: Focus is Pan Am involvement in and support for WWII effort in Africa.

Facilities: Architecture and Design

Arend, Geoffrey. Air world’s great airports: La Guardia, 1939-1979. New York: Air Cargo News, 1979.  Spec Coll TL726.4.N5 A68.

Blacklock, Mark. Recapturing the dream: a design history of New York’s JFK Airport. London: M. Blacklock, 2005.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll NA6303.N5 B53 2005.

Clausen, Meredith L. The Pan Am building and the shattering of the modernist dream. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference NA6233.N5 P363 2005.

Incidents and Accidents

Godson, John.  Clipper 806: the anatomy of an air disaster.  Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1978.  Richter Stacks TL553.5.G6 1978.
Note: Study of Boeing 707 crash in American Samoa in 1974.

Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing

Cohen, Susan and Daniel Cohen.  Pan Am 103: the bombings, the betrayals, and a bereaved family’s search for justice.  New York: New American Library, 2000.  Richter Stacks HV6431.C6 2000.

Emerson, Steven and Brian Duffy.  The fall of Pan Am 103: inside the Lockerbie investigation.  New York: Putnam, 1990.  Richter Stacks HV6431.E49 1990.

Deppa, Joan. The media and disasters: Pan Am 103. New York: New York University Press, c1994.  Richter Stacks PN4784.D57 D46 1994.

Drug Enforcement Administration’s alleged connection to the Pan Am flight 103 disaster: hearing before the Government Information, Justice, and Agriculture Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, second session, December 18, 1990.  Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 1991.  Richter GovInfo Microfiche Y 4.G 74/7:D 84/28.

Gerson, Allan. The price of terror: one bomb, one plane, 270 lives: the history-making struggle for justice after Pan Am 103. New York: HarperCollins, c2001.  Richter Stacks HV6431 .G47 2001.

Marquise, Richard. Scotbom: evidence and the Lockerbie investigation. New York: Algora Pub., c2006. Richter Stacks HV6431 .M3649 2006.

McManus, Sean. The Lockerbie bombing and the demise of Pan Am. Thesis (M.A.), University of North Florida, 2005.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 M453, In Process.

The bombing of Pan Am flight 103: a critical look at American aviation security: hearings before the Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, first session, September 25 and 26, 1989.  Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 1990.  Richter GovInfo Microfiche Y 4.G 74/7:B 63/3.

U.S. policy in the aftermath of the bombing of Pan Am 103: hearing before the Subcommittees on International Security, International Organizations, and Human Rights of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, second session, July 28, 1994.  Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 1994.  Richter GovInfo Microfiche Y 4.F 76/1:P 75/33.

Pacific Clipper

Dover, Ed.  The long way home: Captain Ford’s epic journey.  McLean VA: Paladwr Press, 1999.  Spec Coll Reference D790.D68 1999.
Note: Account of a famous incident after bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Ford on the way to Honolulu turned around his plane, the Pacific Clipper, and flew west around the world.

Flynn, George.  Escape of the Pacific Clipper.  Boston: Branden Publishers, 1997.  Spec Coll D79.J3 F59 1997.
Note: Another version of the Ford trip around the world after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Memoirs and Biographies

Baldwin, James Patrick and Jeff Kriendler. Pan American World Airways: aviation history through the words of its people. Saint Augustine, FL: BluewaterPress, 2011. Spec Coll HE9803.P36 B35 2011.

Bender, Marilyn and Selig Altschul.  The chosen instrument: Pan Am, Juan Trippe, the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 B46.

Berg, A. Scott.  Lindbergh.  New York: G. P. Putnam, 1998. Richter Stacks and Spec Coll TL540.L5 B49 1998.
Note: Award-winning biography of this important aviator who was long affiliated with Pan Am and Juan Trippe.

Blair, Charles F.  Red ball in the sky.  New York: Random House, 1969.  Richter Stacks TL540.B557 A3.
Note: Memoir by pilot who flew for Pan Am.

Bond, W. Langhorne.  Wings for an embattled China. Bethlehem, [Pa.]: Lehigh University Press, 2001. Spec Coll HE9878.A3 B66 2001.
Note: Memoir by Pan Am vice president who spent most of his career in China running CNAC.

Bratt, Aimee.  Glamour and turbulence – I remember Pan Am, 1966-91.  New York:  Vantage, 1996.  Spec Coll HE9803.P36 B72 1996.

Brock, Horace.  Flying the oceans: a pilot’s story of Pan Am, 1935-1955.  3rd ed.  New York: J. Aronson, 1978.  Richter Stacks HE9803.P36 B75 1983.

Brock, Horace.  More about Pan Am:  a pilot’s story continued.  Lunenburg, VT: Stinehour Press, 1980.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36 B76.

Chapman, Francis Allan.  Talking to the world from Pan Am’s clippers.  Np: Carstens Publications, 1999.  Spec Coll 11162 In Process.
Note: Author was a radio officer.

Cranston, Claudia.  Sky gypsy: 25,000 miles by flying clipper ships over South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.  Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1936.  Spec Coll Transfer F2223 .C87.

Daley, Robert.   An American saga: Juan Trippe and his Pan Am empire.  New York:  Random House, 1980.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference TL540.T7.D34 1980.

Davies, R.E.G. Charles Lindbergh: an airman, his aircraft, and his great flights.  McLean, VA: Paladwr Press, 1997.  Spec Coll Reference TL540.L5 D38 1997.

Dunning, Eugene J.  Voices of my peers: Clipper memories.  Nevada City, CA: Clipper Press, 1996.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36.D85 1996.
Note: Oral histories of many Pan Am employees.

Grooch, William S.  Winged highway.  New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1938.  Richter Stacks TL720.9.P3 G7.
Note: “An account of the author’s adventures blazing airline trails to South America and China, mainly in the interest of Pan American airways.”

Hager, Alice Rogers.  Wings over the Americas.  New York: The Macmillan Co., 1940.  Richter Stacks TL721.H23 A3.
Note: “An account of the author’s flight from Miami to Mexico and Central America, down the west coast of South America, and up the east coast to the West Indies.”

Kaucher, Dorothy.  Wings over Wake.  San Francisco: J. Howell, 1947.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll DU950.W28 K21.
Note: Account of trip on the Hawaii Clipper.

Kauffman, S. B.  Pan Am pioneer: a manager’s memoir from seaplane clippers to jumbo jets, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1995.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference HE9803.K38 A3 1995
Note: Kauffman joined the company at its very beginnings in 1929.

Krusen, William et al.  Flying the Andes: the story of Pan American Grace Airways.  Tampa: University of Tampa Press, 1997.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P35 K78 1997.

Lester, Valerie.  Fasten your seat belts! : history and heroism in the Pan Am cabin.  McLean VA: Paladwr Press, 1995.  Spec Coll Reference and Special HE9803.P36 L47 1995.
Note: Author was former Pan Am flight attendant.  Includes much general information about Pan Am as well as stories from other flight attendants.

Lodeesen, Marius.  Captain Lodi speaking: ten million leagues around the earth on the installment plan.  Suttons Bay, MI: Argonaut Press, 1984.  Richter Stacks TL540.L64 A3 1984.

Marsman, Jan Henrik.  I escaped from Hong Kong.  New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, Inc, 1942.  Richter Stacks D 811.5 M28.
Note: Author includes vivid account of the destruction of the Hong Kong Clipper as well as the heroics of CNAC pilots prior to the Japanese occupation.

Masland, William R.  Through the back doors of the world in a ship that had wings.  New York: Vantage Press, 1984.  Richter Stacks TL540.M3673 A37 1984.
Note: Pilot who flew the Sikorsky planes and M-130 tells his story.

Miller, Francis Trevelyan. Lindbergh: his story in pictures. New York: London : G.P. Putnam’s Sons ; Knickerbocker Press, 1929. Spec Coll TL540.L5 M5 1929b.

Ratts, Emmett.  Those were the days, my friend.  Pittsburgh: Dorrance Pub. Co., Inc., 1996.  Spec Coll Reference HE9803.P36R38.

Redfield, Holland L.  The airman’s sky is not the blue.  Kearney NE: Morris Publishing, 1995.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll TL540.R34 A37 1995

Rowe, Basil L.  Under my wings.  Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Florida TL540.R67 A3.
Note: Memoir by a prominent pilot.

Scribner, Kimball J.  Adventures in aviation: an autobiography of Captain Kimball J. Scribner.  Long Beach CA: Mansfield Pub., 1990.  Spec Coll Reference TL540.S47 A3 1990.

Thomas, James O. Trapped with the enemy! Four years a civilian P.O.W. in Japan. [Philadelphia]: Xlibris, 2002.  Spec Coll D805.J3 T485 2002.

Thomas, W. Donald.  Lindbergh and commercial aviation: a pictorial review of Colonel Linbergh’s association with TAT, TWA, and PAA as technical advisor.  Dunedin FL: W. D. Thomas, 1988.  Spec Coll HE6183.L57 T48 1988

Trippe, Betty Stettinius.  The diary and letters of Betty Stettinius Trippe, 1925 to 1968.  [np: np, 1982]  Reprint edited by R. E. G. Davies, McLean VA: Paladwr Press, 1996.  Richter Stacks TL540.T7 T74 1982.

Voortmeyer, Bert.  Riding the reef: a Pan-American adventure with love.  McLean, VA: Paladwr Press, 2005.  Spec Coll TL553.9 .V66 2005.

Ward, Zan (Owen).  The world my oyster: thank you Pan Am. Chichester: Summersdale, 1995.  Spec Coll HE9803.P36 W37 1995.

Wilson, Ned.  For pilot’s eyes only: confessions of a Pan Am veteran.  McLean VA: Paladwr Press, 1993.  Spec Coll Reference TL540.W563 A3 1993.

Commercial Aviation

Beaty, David.  The water jump: the story of transatlantic flight.  London: Secker & Warburg, 1976.  Richter Stacks TL531.B37 1976.

Burden, William A.M.  The struggle for airways in Latin America.  New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1943.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll TL726.5.S6 B8.

Century of Flight. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1999.  Spec Coll Reference TL515.C36 1999.

Courtwright, David T. Sky as frontier: adventure, aviation, and empire. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2005. Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference TL515 .C69 2005.

Evans, Harold.  They made America. New York: Little, Brown, 2004.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference T39 .E83 2004.

Flight, a pictorial history of aviation, by the editors of Year; the complete story of man’s conquest of the air from his earliest dreams to the present jet age, dramatically portrayed in over 1,000 pictures.Foreward by Donald W. Douglas.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Reference TL515.Y4.

Friedman, Jesse J.  A new air transport policy for the North Atlantic: saving an endangered system. New York: Atheneum, 1976.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll HE9777 .F74 1976.

Grooch, William S.  Skyway to Asia.  New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1936.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll TL726.15.G8.

Gwynn-Jones, Terry.  Wings across the Pacific: the courageous aviators who challenged and conquered the greatest ocean.  New York: Orion Books, 1991.  Richter Stacks TL530.A1G86 1990.

Hengi, B.I. Airlines remembered: over 200 airlines of the past, described and illustrated in colour.  Leicester, England: Midland Pub., 2000.  Spec Coll Reference HE9768 .H4513 2000.

Heppenheimer, T. A.  Turbulent skies: the history of commercial aviation.  New York: J. Wiley, & Sons, 1995.  HE9803.A3 H47 1995.

Jablonski, Edward.  Atlantic fever.  New York: Macmillan, 1972.  Richter Stacks TL531.J32.

Kelly, Charles J.  The sky’s the limit: the history of the airlines.  New York: Coward-McCann, 1963.  Richter Stacks TL521 .K35 1963.

Lazarus, William C.  Wings in the sun: the annals of aviation in Florida.  Orlando, Fla.: Tyn Cobb’s Florida Press, 1952.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Florida TL522.F6 L3.

Leyson, Burr Watkins. Wings around the world: the story of American international air transport. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1948.  Richter Stacks TL521 .L42.

Malkin, Richard. Boxcars in the sky. New York: Import Publications [1951].  Richter Stacks TL720.7 .M33.

McCarthy, Kevin.  Aviation in Florida.  Sarasota, Fla.: Pineapple Press, 2003.  Spec Coll Florida TL522.F6 M38 2003.
Note: Includes chapters on Pan Am, National Airlines, and Eastern Airlines.

Mills, Albert H. Sex, strategy, and the stratosphere: airlines and the gendering of organizational culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll HD6060.6 .M55 2006.

Montague, Richard.  Oceans, poles, and airmen; the first flights over wide waters and desolate ice.  New York:  Random House, 1971.  Richter Stacks TL721.1.M6.

Rowe, Basil L.  Under my wings.  New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1956.  Richter Stacks and Spec Coll Florida TL540.R67 A3.

Solberg, Carl.  Conquest of the skies: a history of commercial aviation in America.  Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1979.  Richter Stacks HE9803.A3S64
Note: First important scholarly monograph on the history of commercial aviation.

Smith, Henry Ladd.  Airways abroad: the story of American world air routes.  Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1950.  Richter Stacks TL521.S52 1950a.

Sparks, William Anthony.  Pan American World Airways: crisis, fuel crisis.  Thesis (M.B.A.), University of California, Berkeley, 1974.  Spec Coll HE9803.P36 S62 1974a.

Sparks, William A.  Pan American World Airways: crisis, fuel crisis.  (MBA Thesis University of California, Berkeley, 1972.)  Spec Coll HE9803.P36 S62 1974.

Sterling, Robert J.  From the captain to the colonel: an informal history of Eastern Airlines.  New York: Dial Press, 1980.  Spec Coll Reference and Richter Stacks HE9803.E2 S47

Szurovy, Geza. Classic American airlines. St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press, 2003.  Spec Coll Reference TL685.4 .S98 2003.

Whitehouse, Arthur Joseph George.  The sky’s the limit: a history of the U.S. airlines. New York: Macmillan 1971.  Richter Stacks HE9803.A35 W46.

Flight Attendants

Barry, Kathleen M. Femininity in flight: a history of flight attendants.  Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.  Richter Stacks HD6073.A432 U62 2007.

Bratt, Aimee.  Glamour and turbulence – I remember Pan Am, 1966-91.  New York:  Vantage, 1996.  Spec Coll HE9803.P36 B72 1996.

Lester, Valerie.  Fasten your seat belts! : history and heroism in the Pan Am cabin.  McLean VA: Paladwr Press, 1995.  Spec Coll Reference and Special HE9803.P36 L47 1995.
Note: Author was former Pan Am flight attendant.  Includes much general information about Pan Am as well as stories from other flight attendants.

Murray, Mary F. Skygirl: a career handbook for the airline stewardess.  New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1951.  Spec Coll TL720.3 M8.

Stein, Elisa.  Stewardess: come fly with me.  San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2006.  Spec Coll HD8039.A43 S65 2006.

Tiemeyer, Philip James. Plane Queer: labor sexuality and AIDS in the history of male flight attendants. University of California Press, 2013. Richter Stacks HD6073.A432INTERNET.

Prepared by Craig Likness and Maria R. Estorino, July 2007. Last updated October, 2014
Pan Am Organizations
Pan Am Historical Foundation is a group founded in 1992, dedicated to preserving the heritage of Pan American World Airways. Their website is an excellent resource for information on Pan Am’s history and the activities of the Foundation, as the company’s official legacy base. The site features narrative and descriptive essays written by former employees and aviation experts and archival images and video.

World Wings International is a philanthropic organization founded in 1959, made up of former Pan Am flight attendants who seek to maintain the historic Pan Am tradition of global humanitarian assistance, safeguard Pan Am's place in Aviation History, and promote friendship among its members through cultural and civic activities. Members donate time to fundraising for charities within their chapter community as well as for C.A.R.E., a humanitarian organization. Their motto is: "Pan Am brought us together and World Wings keeps us together."

Clipper Crew is an organization of former flight attendants whose mission is to connect with each other, care for one another in times of crisis, and celebrate Pan Am's history. Their website contains information about the organization, its activities and a wealth of information about the history of Pan Am through the lens of its flight attendants.

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