Air Force Association, Wright Memorial Chapter Records

The Air Force Association Wright Memorial Chapter Papers document the last 50 years of AFA activity in the national, state, and regional arenas, as well as the Dayton area. Through these papers, researchers may gain insight into Cold War era events pertinent to the United States Air Force Community; as well as Wright Memorial Chapter events in the Dayton area.

Series I, Administrative Papers, consists of the organizational procedures of the AFA (Wright Memorial Chapter, State, and National). This includes copies of national and local constitutions, as well as general information about the Air Force Association and the US Air Force. This information dates from 1963 to 1988. The series also contains information about officers, elections, and members, financial reports, and general correspondence. These documents include reports by individuals in the US Senate. The administrative papers are also rich in national, state, regional, and local meeting minutes (1961-2007). The original Articles of Incorporation is located in an oversized folder Location #66 and Folder #13. Items in this series range in date from 1956 to 2014. When additions were processed in 2014, multiple administrative files for the Community Partners Program (member invoices and renewals) and the Wright Brothers Heritage Benefit (meeting minutes, planning, and financial) were part of the acquisition. Rather than interfile these by year in the financial records, these files were maintained separately by event name within the administrative series as they had been upon acquisition. Documents pertaining to the actual events (as opposed to planning, e.g. WBHB programs) were filed in

Series II, Community Activities. Two files ("Bank Statements and Checks, 1998-2002" and "Bank Statements and Checks, 2001-2004") that had been processed with the 2013 additions were removed and returned to the donor to safeguard account numbers. These files were numbered as Box 6, File 8 and Box 7, File 1 in the 2013 edition of the finding aid. Obviously, these file numbers now contain different sets of documents because the remaining files were re-numbered in this current version of the finding aid.

Series II, Community Activities, contains the actions and events endorsed and/or sponsored by the Wright Memorial Chapter. This series includes state, regional, and national conference information ranging in years from 1953 to 2002 and includes brochures, speeches, press releases, and programs from the conferences. This series also contains information on various chapter sponsored leadership workshops and luncheons as well as information on scholarships, charitable donations, and the chapter's work will local AFJROTC high school groups. In addition, this series includes information pertaining to the annual Dayton Air Show and annual US Air Force Anniversary celebrations, ranging in dates between 1966 and 2006. The community series contains award information, including planning for awards banquets and award nominations and notifications for awards given by the Wright Memorial Chapter and/or received by the chapter. With the awards are several metal and wooded awards. These awards range in date between 1958 and 2008.

Series III, Publications, documents the action and news of the US Air Force, the National AFA, and the Wright Memorial Chapter through various media outlets. The series includes the AFA Reports Newsletter, the AFA Profile Newsletter, and the Wright Memorial Chapter Crossfeed Newsletter. The collection also includes copies of the 1964 and 1968-1971 Air Force Magazine, the AFA's national publication. In addition, the series includes news clippings on AFA activities and members from assorted print media sources. The newspaper clippings contain information on AFA events and honors/recognition received by the Wright Memorial Chapter and its members. The clippings range in date from 1950 to 1980. The series also holds some rare aviation magazines, including the All Women's Transcontinental Air Race (1961-1962) and Dialogue Magazine (1966).

Series IV, Photographs, Audio Media, and Scrapbooks, contains images from various award ceremonies and gatherings. Several groups of photos are accompanied by negatives. This series also holds a number of unidentified photos of individual people and gatherings. The photos have been arranged chronologically. This series also houses two unknown 16mm audio films, an AFA pin/tie tack, and an Eddie Rickenbacker scrapbook.