Ruth Herr Papers

Ruth (Boes) Herr was born October 13, 1897. Her husband, Jim (James H. Herr, 1893-1944), took her for her first airplane ride as a birthday present in 1924. She learned how to fly in 1947.

Mrs. Herr delivered an airplane part to Wilbur Wright Field (now Patterson Field, a part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) for the first airplane to fly non-stop from Oakland, California, to Wheeler Field, Honolulu, Hawaii; the two flyers were Lt. Albert G. Hegenberger and Lt. Lester Maitland. Her husband called her at 1:00 A.M. on June 1927 and told her to drive her Ford Roadster to McCook Field to get the part. When she arrived at Wright Field, she refused to get out of the car because of the rattlesnakes there.

Mrs. Herr retired in 1960 after thirty-nine years of teaching art in the Dayton and Oakwood public schools, as well as at the Dayton Art Institute. Ruth Herr died April 24, 1985, in Kettering, Ohio. She and her husband are buried in Woodland Cemetery in Dayton.

Scope and Content: The papers of Ruth Herr contain a small selection of materials relating to women’s rights, covering approximately the years 1935-1949. Even though Ruth Herr was involved in the early history of aviation, this collection does not include materials on that topic. The materials in this collection include information on the National Woman’s Party, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Also in the collection is a speech given by Ruth Herr; the Constitution of the National Woman’s Party of the Third Congressional District and a set of proposed amendments to it; newspaper clippings; and newspapers from Equal Rights.