George J. Frebert Collection on Delaware Aviation 2288 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 14, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library George J. Frebert Collection on Delaware Aviation 2288 Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Biographical Note .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Content ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 5 Related Materials ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Controlled Access Headings .......................................................................................................................... 5 Collection Inventory ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Published and Unpublished Articles ........................................................................................................... 6 Subject Files ................................................................................................................................................ 8 Katrina Elizabeth Pusey Canning Files ...................................................................................................... 9 Delaware Aviation History ....................................................................................................................... 11 Personal Files ............................................................................................................................................. 18 - Page 2 - George J. Frebert Collection on Delaware Aviation 2288 Summary Information Repository: Manuscripts and Archives Creator: Frebert, George J., 1929-2002 Title: George J. Frebert Collection on Delaware Aviation ID: 2288 Date [inclusive]: 1896-2001 Date: bulk 1927-1957 Physical Description: 4 Linear Feet (5 boxes, 2 oversize) Language of the English . Material: Abstract: George J. Frebert (1929-2002) was a pilot and aviation enthusiast. He authored the book Delaware Aviation History. The collection contains both materials used in the preparation of Delaware Aviation History and other items that Frebert collected dealing with Delaware aviation, aviators and airports. Much of the material was copied from historical repositories, but Frebert also collected original materals and photos from other early aviators. ^ Return to Table of Contents Biographical Note George J. Frebert (1929-2002) was a pilot and aviation enthusiast. Frebert, author of Delaware Aviation History, was born on August 15, 1929 in College Park, Maryland. His interest in airplanes began early in life, including the building and flying of model airplanes while a boy. He also washed airplanes in return for flying lessons and took his first solo flight on his sixteenth birthday. Frebert served in the Air Force for four years during the Korean Conflict. On his return to civilian life, he settled in Dover, Delaware, and founded the Dover Litho Printing Company in 1957. He was active in local business organizations, served as president of the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce in 1968-1969, and was Small Business Man of the Year in 1986. As his business thrived, Frebert returned to personal flying, obtaining his private, commercial and multi-engine ratings at the Delaware Airpark. His interest in aviation history led him to restore four airplanes. After retiring from the Dover Litho Printing Company in 1991, Frebert began research on Delaware Aviation History, which was published by his printing company in July 1998. The book covers Delaware - Page 3- George J. Frebert Collection on Delaware Aviation 2288 aviation history from its beginnings to the end of the twentieth century. The book highlights the careers of Henry Belin du Pont (1898-1970), who founded Atlantic Aviation and welcomed Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) on his visit to Wilmington in 1927, Richard Chicester du Pont (1911-1943) and All American Aviation, Inc., and particularly Giuseppe M. Bellanca (1886-1960), the only significant pioneer airplane designer and builder active in Delaware. Frebert died at his home in Smyrna, Delaware, on November 10, 2002. Katherine E. Pusey (1905-1965), who reverted to her birth name after her 1934 divorce from Theodore William Canning (1905-1958), was the first woman aviator in Delaware and became the chief pilot for the flying delivery service of the Phillips Packing Company of Cambridge, Maryland. She suffered major injuries in a crash at Pocomoke City, Maryland, on June 20, 1934, and became a stenographer, but resumed flying as a member of the Civil Air Patrol during World War II. Pusey's was employed as the chief pilot for the new flying service of the Phillips Packing Company of Cambridge, Maryland in from 1934 to 1935. This company's product was Phillips Delicious Vegetable Soup. The Phillips Packing Company was the first in the vegetable harvesting and canning business to introduce a flying service. Colonel Albanus Phillips (1871-1949) was the Phillips Company president, S. Charles Walls (1914-1969) the Public Relations man, and Robert D. Turpin (1911-1976) the flying mechanic. Katrina (nickname Bunny) Canning owned her own plane and flew it for this service. ^ Return to Table of Contents Scope and Content The collection contains both materials used in the preparation of Delaware Aviation History and other items that Frebert collected dealing with Delaware aviation, aviators and airports. Much of the material was copied from historical repositories, but Frebert also collected original materals and photos from other early aviators. The main focus is on Giuseppe Bellanca and his Bellanca Aircraft Corporation, the most significant figure in Delaware aviation, but the collection also contains documentation on the work of airline promoter Henry Belin du Pont and pilot Richard Chichester du Pont, including the latter's innovative but short-lived air-mail pick-up system for snagging mail sacks mounted on the ground. Frebert also collected the personal scrapbooks and other memorabilia of Katrina Elizabeth Pusey, the first woman aviator in Delaware. These document her early work for a flying delivery service, her injuries in a 1934 crash that ended her flying career except for home front activities during World War II, and her bitter divorce from her first husband Theodore William Canning on grounds of adultery, along with the feats of other early woman aviators. ^ Return to Table of Contents - Page 4- George J. Frebert Collection on Delaware Aviation 2288 Administrative Information Publication Statement Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Access Restrictions Some records closed for 25 years from date of creation. Provenance Gift of the Frebert family ^ Return to Table of Contents Related Materials Separated Material George J. Frebert photograph collection on Delaware aviation (Accession 2011.297), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Iniatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library. ^ Return to Table of Contents Controlled Access Headings • Women in aviation • Aeronautics • Airplanes • Air pilots • Airports - Page 5- George J. Frebert Collection on Delaware Aviation 2288 • Bellanca, Guissepe Mario, 1886-1960 • Bellanca Aircraft Corporation • Pusey, Katrina E. (Katrina Elizabeth), 1905-1965 Collection Inventory Published and Unpublished Articles Scope and Content Consists of published and unpublished articles, including Frebert's unpublished manuscript, "G. M. Bellanca and his Record Breaking Planes," and Thomas Penfield's 1941 book, Guardians of America: Men and Machines of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps. Title/Description Instances Cox, Jack, "The Aviabellanca Sky Rocket III". Sports Aviation, box 1 folder 1 pp. 66-69., 1998 July Brechner, Berl (text and photography). "The Clean Slate box 1 folder 2 Approach." Flying, pp. 46-51., 1983 January Martinez, Marc. "Spirit of Wenatchee." Wenatchee World Online box 1 folder 3 Features, 7 p., 1999 January 17 Aviation Magazine, Vol. 27 No. 13., 1929 September 28 box 1 folder 4 Aero Digest: One page article by Capt. Boris Sergievsky of the box 1 folder 5 Sikorsky Aviation Corp., "Speed and Altitude", page 81, April 1930; partial issue., 1935 February Spenser, Jay P. Bellanca C.F. The Emergence of the Cabin box 1 folder 6 Monoplane in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press., 1982 Popular Aviation. Issues Vol. 26, No. 2 (Feb. 1940); Vol. 22 No. box 1 folder 7 1 (January 1938); Vol. 20, No. 3 (March 1937)., 1937 March1938 January1940 February Air Progress magazine., 1966 September box 1 folder 8 Flight Journal., 1998 February box 1 folder 9 Canadian Historical Society. The C-A-H-S Journal. Vol. 9, No. 1. box 1 folder 10 Photocopy., 1971 Bellanca Aircraft Company. FAA History of 1931 Bellanca J-300 box