Jun 21, 2016 - Sale 2420

Sale 2420 - Lot 62

Unsold
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(AVIATION.) Bracelet issued to Women's Air Derby participant Neva Paris. Enamel emblem reading "National Air Races, Cleveland 1929", 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch, mounted on a thin bracelet stamped "sterling", 2 1/2 inches in diameter; minimal wear. Cleveland, OH, 1929
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Additional Details

The Women's Air Derby was a race from Santa Monica, CA to Cleveland, OH which took place in August 1929. It was the first formal American competition for female aviators. Comedian Will Rogers dubbed it "the Powder Puff Derby." Amelia Earhart was among the 20 competitors. One of the aviators died during the nine-day race, and several others survived crashes or other scares. All participants in the derby were given personalized bracelets. This one is engraved on verso to Neva Paris, who finished sixth in the heavy craft class. Another example of this bracelet is preserved at the International Women's Air and Space Museum (illustrated in Matowitz, Cleveland's National Air Races, page 16--a copy is included with the lot). Neva Estelle Finlay Paris (1892-1930) was a Kansas City native who had relocated to Long Island, NY. She told a reporter while her plane was refueling in Kansas City, "This woman's derby hopes to prove that women are as much at home in the air as men. . . . It's a sport of the gods" (quoted in Jessen, Powder Puff Derby of 1929, page 177). Paris was instrumental in organizing the Ninety-Nines, an association of women pilots which continues today; Earhart was the first president. She died in January 1930, just a few months after the derby, when her plane went down in a Georgia swamp.