MS-344: Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection
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MS-344: Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection Collection Number: MS-344 Title: Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection Dates: 1917-2002 Creator: Jefferies, Matt, 1921-2003 Summary/Abstract: The Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection consists of more than 15,000 photographs and over 1100 books, pamphlets, and journals. The bulk of the photographs pertain to aviation from the 1930s to the 1960s. Most of the photographs document military aircraft produced by a variety of aircraft manufacturers. However, the collection also contains a significant number of photographs taken by movie studios during the filming of aviation-themed movies. Quantity/Physical Description: 138 linear feet Language(s): The materials are primarily in English, though French and German are also represented (indicated at the file or item level). Repository: Special Collections and Archives, Paul Laurence Dunbar Library, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435-0001, (937) 775-2092, [email protected] Restrictions on Access: Portions of this collection (research materials in boxes 191-239 and some oversize materials) are stored off site. Please contact us at least two days in advance if you would like to research within boxes 191-239 or oversize materials (identified by “OS”). For the Star Trek slides in Series IV, researchers are requested to use reference prints in lieu of the original slides. Restrictions on Use: Copyright restrictions may apply. Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder. Preferred Citation: [Description of item, Date, Box#, File#], MS-344, Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. Acquisition: The Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection was donated to Special Collections and Archives by Walter Matthews Jefferies and his wife, Mary Ann, in November 2003. Mrs. Jefferies also donated a large addition to the collection in June 2016. MS-344: Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection 1 Separated Material: Select aviation books, pamphlets, and journals in the collection have been cataloged and added to the Special Collections and Archives reading room. Related Material: MS-223, William F. Yeager Aviation Collection MS-353, Robert L. Cavanagh Aviation Collection MS-279, American Society of Aviation Artists. Other Finding Aid: For more information about the photographs in Subseries IV-A Mounted Photographs, such as airplane manufacturer, aircraft number, date of photograph, and photographer, consult the books created by Jefferies to track the photographs located in Boxes 5 and 5A. An item-level index to the Star Trek slides in Series IV-C is available. The finding aid is available on the Special Collections & Archives, Wright State University Libraries web site at https://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/collectionguides/files/ms344.pdf. It is also available in the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository at http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/. Existence and Location of Copies: Reference prints for the Star Trek slides in Series IV-C should be used in place of handling the originals. " A selection of aircraft images from the Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection are available online in Wright State University’s Campus Online Repository (CORE Scholar): https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/special_ms344_photographs/. The digitized Jefferies Collection photographs, as well as aircraft photographs from other collections held by Wright State University Special Collections & Archives, can also be found online in CORE Scholar in the Aircraft gallery: http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/aircraft/. Additional Sources: Jefferies, Richard L., Beyond the Clouds: The Lifetime Trek of Walter “Matt” Jefferies, Artist and Visionary, Dallas, TX: Brown Books Publishing Group, 2008. Processed by: Initial processing of the photographs portion of the collection was completed by Melissa Schmunk in 2003. Final processing of the initial donation was completed by John Armstrong in August 2009. Additions were processed by John Armstrong, Karen Pittman, Ed O’Shaughnessy, and Lisa Rickey, from 2016-2021. Arrangement: The Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection consists of four series: Series I: Research and General Information, 1917-2002 MS-344: Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection 2 Series II: Technical Orders and Maintenance Manuals, 1918-1971 Series III: Subject Files, circa 1930-1990 Series IV: Photographic Material, circa 1920-2002 Biographical/Historical Note: Walter Matthews “Matt” Jefferies was born on August 12, 1921, in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. From an early age, he was fascinated with flight. He became an avid builder of model aircraft after his family moved to Richmond, Virginia when his father became chief engineer at a power plant there. Mr. Jefferies enlisted in National Guard in 1941. In 1942 he transferred to the Army Air Corps, where he became a B-17 Flight Engineer. He served with 8th Air Force in England and with 12th Air Force in Africa as a flight test engineer logging over 1,000 hours flight testing B-17s, B-24s, B-25s, C-47s and Catalina flying boats. He was awarded both the Bronze Star and Air Medal. After the war, Mr. Jefferies returned to New Jersey where he met a neighbor, William Heaslip, a World War I fighter pilot and painter. Mr. Heaslip took a liking to Jefferies and gave him the old photo files for Sportsman Pilot, a magazine that was ceasing production. This was the start of his extensive aviation history collection; a collection that served him well in his research for paintings. In 1946 Mr. Jefferies went to work as an artist for Erco Manufacturing Company. In this position he used his artistic talent to produce sales brochures, advertising material, and to illustrate manuals. When the bottom dropped out of the light airplane business in 1949, he free- lanced for a while before taking a job with the Library of Congress as the Assistant Chief of Graphics in the Research Division. He quit four years later becoming a freelance aviation illustrator for aviation magazines; including Air Progress magazine here he became famous for a series of scale inboard profile cut-a-ways and perspectives of U.S. and foreign military aircraft. His big career opportunity occurred in 1958 when Warner Brothers Studio needed a mock-up of the interior of a B-52 for the movie “Bombers B-52.” He was referred by his brother who knew that Jefferies had all the manuals and also was aware that Strategic Air Command in Omaha was not cooperating with the studio. Eventually, Jefferies moved on to begin a long career in television where he was the Art Director for such shows as Ben Casey, Mission: Impossible, Riptide, Love American Style, Little House on the Prairie, and Dallas. However, his most famous work was the design of the “Starship Enterprise” for the Star Trek television series. Later he designed the updated and refitted “Enterprise” for the first Star Trek movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Mr. Jefferies was an avid flyer. In 1967 he realized a life-long dream when he became the proud owner of a 1935 WACO YOC Custom Cabin which he hangared at Santa Paula, CA airport. Walter Matthews Jefferies died on July 21, 2003, of congestive heart failure. He was three weeks short of his 82nd birthday. MS-344: Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection 3 Scope and Content The Walter Matthews Jefferies Aviation Collection primarily consists of aviation photographs. Most of the photographs document military aircraft produced by a variety of aircraft manufacturers. However, the collection also contains a significant number of photographs taken by movie studios during the filming of aviation-themed movies. The collection is divided into four series. Series I, Research and General Information, is divided into several subseries, including aircraft information, publications, maps, drawings, and other materials. Researchers should take note that there may be some overlap of subjects and formats between Series I and Series II and III. The material in Series I was received primarily with the original donation in 2003, which was mostly photographs, whereas Series II and III were received as part of the donation in 2016, which was mostly paper materials. Materials in this series date from 1917 to 2002. Subseries I-A: Aircraft Information contains airplane records from 1922 to 1943, in both paper and microfilm format. The subseries also contains information on aircraft, by license number, information on a variety of aircraft including the P-12 and P-26, articles about aircraft, and promotional material. Materials in this series date from 1917 to 1998. Subseries I-B: Correspondence contains correspondence, most of which is general in nature. Correspondents include the American Aviation Historical Society, Harold Cabot Jr., Robert Cavanagh, Margaret Clark, National Air and Space Museum (NASM), actor William Shatner, and others. The bulk of the materials in this series date from 1956 to 2002, but one file of correspondence dates from 1932 to 1933. Subseries I-C: Newsletters, Newspapers, and Magazines contains a variety of publications and articles. Of particular note are articles on the National Air Races during the 1940s at Cleveland, Ohio, and the New York Times series “Along the World’s Airways: The Week in Aeronautics from 1931 and 1932. Materials in this series date from 1927 to 1999. Series I-D: Maps, Drawings,