Sky High
Date: Saturday, January 18, 2020
Time: 3–4pm
Location: The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue
"A woman has to do twice as much as a man to be considered half as good. Fortunately, that’s not too difficult." – wall-hanging from Edna Gardner Whyte’s Aero Valley Flight School
Amelia Earhart wasn't America's only trailblazing aviatrix! Wolfsonian research curator Lea Nickless invites you to imagine yourself in 1939 Miami, under a sky filled with the hum of racing planes flown by women. Standing tall as first-place champion of the All-American Air Maneuvers' 50-mile Women’s Sportsman Free-For-All was Edna Gardner Whyte, a nurse-turned-aviator who won 120 racing trophies over her 60-year flying career and trained as many as 5,000 pilots through her successful flight school. Nickless will focus on how Whyte and her female peers dared to tell draconian gender barriers to "eat my dust" and empowered themselves to become legends of the sky. After the talk, we’ll fly up to the 6th floor to view Edna’s 1939 trophy, currently on display in A Universe of Things.
Free and open to the public | RSVP