Wright Whirlwind: 1942

Makes you want to go find a DeLorean and a flux capacitor.

This touching photograph is quite similar to a painting by Norman Rockwell.

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” Dorothea Lange

This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I found this in the Archival Collection at Texas Woman’s University.

“Mary Josephine Farley Tilton, Letters, 1943-1944, 5 folders. Native of Aransas Pass, Texas. Worked as an engine mechanic and Link trainer instructor during World War II, then joined the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP), class 43-W-4. Later was commissioned in the Air Force. Served in Germany during the Korean War. Graduated in 1965 from Midwestern University with a B.S. Degree in Elementary Education and became a teacher. Letters (all photocopies), written to her family, document Tilton's experiences as a WASP trainee at Avenger Field Sweetwater, Texas, and a ferry pilot based at Love Field, Dallas, Texas. Also includes news articles and a copy of "The Flying V," newsletter of Love Field's ferrying group and a color copy of photograph [1943 or 1944]. Gift of Mary Josephine Tilton, 1995.

Yeah I'm 51 and whenever I look at these beautiful women I have to keep reminding myself that they were all born before my 79-year-old mother.

There's something about them though that makes them seem more in synch with our times than the women of say a decade later. Don't know what it is.

I'm sitting here looking at this beautiful woman, and then I realise ... 65 years ago.