by Mary James

5. 1920-1938 – The Where, What, and (some of) Who

One need not be a detective when a piece of notebook paper titled WHERE I WAS features addresses, dates, schools, and jobs, all with arrows and tiny bits of context written into the margins and in between lines. The sheet details her whereabouts from 1920-1938 (ages 17-35). Here it is pre-transcription:

Helen’s handwritten timeline from 1920-1938 of education, jobs, summer camps, etc.

Here are the main bits (with some commentary):

Education

  • 1920-1924 T.C. B.S. Degree, Teaching Diploma, Whittier Hall
  • 1931 T.C. Spring Session, Winter Session, 1931-1932, M.A. Degree 

Separately, I found two poorly photocopied degrees from Columbia University – a bachelor’s and a master’s, folded up together in thirds, like a take out menu. Through wizardly sleuthing on the webs I discovered that T.C. meant Teachers College, and that it was housed in Whittier Hall, and that both were part of Columbia University. I found it a bit odd she didn’t mention it (or spell out Teachers College), especially if she was detailing important aspects of her life with extreme detail.

Bachelor of Science Degree, Columbia University, 1924
Master of Arts Degree, Columbia University, 1932

As far as I can tell, both degrees are in the same program, so I’m not sure why one is in Science and one in Arts, but perhaps the curriculum changed in the intervening years.

Teaching

  • 1924-25 – University of Cincinnati 
  • 1926-29 – University of Kentucky, Lexington KY 
  • 1927 – University of Minnesota (summer session)
  • 1932 – Smith College
  • 1932-37 – Gulf Park College for Women, Mississippi
  • 1934 – Bennington College
  • 1936 – Purdue 

Side note: She was Director of Physical Education at these schools.

Labeled ‘U of Kentucky, 2nd Car’, she taught there from 1926-1929. Look at the cool car!

Camps

  • 1921 – Camp Auerwey [sp?] – Delaware Water Gap, swim, baseball, basketball
  • 1922 – Pine Tree Camp, Pocono Pines, PA, Dickie Harper (Peter)
  • 1923 – Spring and Fall Camp Saueo, Pittsfield, MA (at Camp Louvre) [?]
  • 1923 – Camp Owaissa, Orleans MA, Cape Cod, “Mrs. Norman White’s camp for counselors”, head swim
  • 1923 – Camp Fairway, Lake Garfield, Monterey, MA
  • 1926 – Camp Kawajiwin, Minn, Head swim, canoe, Milla Kara Jacobson
  • 1927 – Bac BC Ranch, Jackson Hole, WY
  • 1931 – Camp Brooklyn, Narrowsburg, NY
  • 1931 – Camp Kalmic (Girl Scouts), Blairstown, NJ
  • 1933-1937 – Camp? Inn by the Sea, Pass Christian Miss (summer)

Side note: She was also Head of Physical Education at most of these camps. I Googled all these places some still exist and some are elusive.

Labeled: ‘Cape Cod Archery’, likely at Camp Owaissa, Orleans MA, 1923. Note the socks.
Labeled: ‘AA Houseparty 1934’, and if this was a summer camp, it was likely ‘Inn by the Sea, Pass Christian Miss’. Note the uneven tan lines on her ankles :).

Most of the above was brand new to me, but this part I knew about:

  • 1937 – M.V. Silverwillow, New Orleans, Nov 7, 1937 – San Francisco Apr 1938 to Vanc-Vict
    • Side note: this is the solo freight boat around the world from one of the big envelopes awaiting further exploration, but for context Vanc-Vict means Vancouver-Victoria, Canada
  • 1938 – R & I concluded [word I can’t read] for marriage ASAP; June 22 Jean Eliz to Mary. July 3 – Mary had a ‘heart flutter’ in host. P.S. In 1962 open heart operation
    • Side note: R is Roy Shadbolt, her husband, who was a flirty engineer on the aforementioned boat. Jean Eliz is my mother, who was born June 22, 1938, and Mary (also Elizabeth, like me) is my grandmother and Helen’s sister, eight years her junior. The heart flutter, sadly, was a sign of health ailments to come.
Labeled: SW 1937 PM on the boat deck [Likely means Silverwillow, in the afternoon]. She looks happy.

And that is where the timeline ends.

by Mary James

4. The Helen Artifacts

Another large envelope, vying for size with the flight one, was Helen’s 1937 freight boat trip around the world. In it I found that my uncle had transcribed her journal – which came to 70 typed printed pages – without using a scanner, which must have been painstaking because her handwriting was smaller than the font on a side-effects label (see below) – like she didn’t want anyone reading it at the time. But she did later, when she got older, as she was the one who curated the notes and pictures, as all the envelopes had the same handwriting, but a half a font bigger.

Pages from Helen’s journal from her freight boat trip around the world, 1937.
The pages are 4×7″ (my iPhone XR is 3×6″ so only a little smaller, to give you an idea of the size).

But before heading around the world, let’s look into her early years and what might have set her on such an adventurous path.

by Mary James

3. Pilot Log Book – 1932

Thirteen years after the airshow at MSG when she was 16, she received her pilot’s license in Gulf Port, Mississippi (at the time she taught Physical Education at Gulfport College, a Junior College for Girls).

Helen’s Pilot Log Book, 1932-1933
Pages from Helen’s Flight Log while getting her pilot’s license

Below are highlights from pages that were included in her flight materials, from 1932-1933, as she is learning to fly:

  • Oct 17 – 1st lesson – 1.2hr. Short flight in 2 cyl. Aeronca
  • Oct 23 – 15 min. First wing-over
  • Nov 7 – watched landings. Did 4. Badly. Taxied.
  • Nov 13 – Moonlight – Jewels sparkling, Thin line of foam to mark the shoreline. A 90 degree turn and zoom toward the moon.
  • Nov 14 – Gorgeous day. Bumpier than any lesson. Much yet to learn, but feel rather better about landings. Made 4 today.
  • Nov 20 – Beautiful day. Big crowd, did turns and steep turns and a couple of stalls and 3 landings with sideslips.
  • Dec – 5 landings. Do the same stupid things every time. Will I ever learn to move the stick smoothly to avoid climbing turns, to keep my nose on the horizon, to bring the RPM down to 1350 for straight flying, to cut off the motor soon enough when coming down.
  • Dec 6 – WH has bot an ‘Aeronca’ – will guarantee a solo for $75. After my lesson he took me up in it. It practically flies itself. Cute as they come. The worst lesson yet – expect to get hung up in a pine tree yet. There’s so much to learn.
  • Jan 9 – After a month’s vacation it was heavenly to be up again. Didn’t do as badly as I expected tho I’m still heavy-handed on the stick and rudders. Bumpy today. 3 landings.
  • Feb 3 – 1$7.50, googles, $4.50, helmet $1.75. Made six landings. The field was wet in spots and I did well at hitting them. Wore the new goggles and helmet.
  • Feb 22 – The Eaglerock down for inspection, so as a great concession I was allowed to fly the Waco F. It flies beautifully. Did some good landings. Walter did some wingovers. The Waco climbs straight up! Real thrills!
  • February 26 – Back to the Eaglerock. Had a grand time. WH likes to play when there’s a big crowd at the field and zoomed down and up a couple of times to scare some children off the field. Tried on a parachute for the first time (remember Fritz Vinson). For the first time knew where I was ‘at’ when we came out of a wingover.
  • Mar 1 – Flew the Eaglerock. Lousy landings again once I didn’t even get down. 
  • March 29 – For the first time I really flew. Hope it wasn’t just accidental one landing on the wheels, but the others were good. If I can only do as well next time.
  • April 1 – Doing some better WH said I’m most ready to go solo. Wish I could think so.
  • Apr 3 – Got to the field before I realized the force of the wind. Went up anyway for the experience and it was different. There are so many variables in this game. Didn’t do so well.
  • April 17 – In last five minutes got back to starting point. Made first good dead stick landing.
  • May 17 – HOT – but I’m not – it has been so long since last time. 
  • May 18 – Ah me – 10 ½ hours and no solo yet. Bad business.
  • May 22 – 6am went around twice and Walter said, “how do you feel this morning? Take it around by yourself.” FIRST SOLO FLIGHT! Made 2 landings, both three pointers. 
Pages found with Helen’s flight information, transcribed above
Gulfport Daily Herald, May 22, 1933

As for the plane lingo she uses, wingovers look like a plane doing a flip. A sideslip is where the plane moves a little sideways while also moving forward to help with alignment. A dead stick landing is when a plane is forced to land because of mechanical issues.

The planes, the Aeronca, Eaglerock, and Waco are all aircraft of the era.

Here are some other items included with the flight information.

Helen’s Amateur Pilot’s License (her records show her middle name was Grace, so not sure where the H is coming from)
Bureau of Air Commerce ID card, 1936 (also with the H as middle name).
Letter from Gulfport’s president, Richard G. Cox, 1936
Letter from Gulfport’s President’s Wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Maddox Cox, 1936

These letters, from the President of Gulfport College and his wife, are addressed to where Helen’s family lived. They had moved from Brooklyn to Arlington, New Jersey, sometime after Helen had left for college. I don’t believe Helen lived at home again after going to Columbia. She spend her summers teaching athletics at camps or, once graduated, teaching at other colleges, well into her 30s.

When the letters were written, Helen was teaching at Purdue in Indiana, enjoying her time zipping around in the skies.

by Mary James

2. The Annual Aeronautical Exposition – 1919

From the neatly labeled materials that Helen left for family, I started with the pilot folder. The items, mostly from 1932-1936, consisted of a training log, pilot license, newspaper clippings, a few picture of her in or leaning on planes, an invite to fly with a famous racing couple (Jim and Mary Haizlip, who are worth a looksee). But one item was older. On a scrap of paper seemingly ripped out of a journal, with handwriting and language were different than her usual writing, it said:

“Thursday 3/14/19

During school hours is too dry and dull to write here. For once I really didn’t go to the doctor’s. Instead I came home and ran over my Latin (literally) and wrote a composition on ‘Americanism’. At five o’clock I changed my dress and had my supper and I left the house at five-thirty to meet my father in New York at 6:15pm. When I got off the car at Park Row, New York, he was already there and we then took the subway to 23rd street station and walked about four blocks to Madison Square Garden (which is a building about the size of the Hippodrome in St Paul, only larger) and walked in upon the Aero Show!! No one could ever tell about all we saw there, it would be impossible! There were big aeroplanes and small ones, and flying boats, and planes that didn’t swim, and balloons and…”

Helen Skinner’s journal page from 1919, when she was 16

This was her at age 16, going with her father to Madison Square Garden to see an air show. She would have travelled to meet her father from Flatbush, Brooklyn, where she lived with her parents, Frank and Gertrude Skinner, and her much younger sister Mary Elizabeth (my maternal grandmother and namesake).

Bit of trivia: the current Madison Square Garden isn’t where it used to be, which is why she could get off at 23rd Street and walk four blocks and be there. It was where Madison Square Park is now. 

She also mentions in the note, ‘For once I really didn’t go to the doctor’s.’ This refers to childhood health problems — seemingly mostly sinus in nature — that persisted well into adulthood. Those problems are also why she knew how big the Hippodrome in St. Paul was — she left Brooklyn for a while to live in the mid-west, where the air was supposed to be better (another theory is that she hated the aforementioned church and went to live with family friends to get away from her strict parents).

As the internet has absolutely everything, I found an ad for the air show on Ebay and purchased it.

Magazine ad for The Annual Aeronautical Exposition in 1919, which Helen attended when she was 16