British helicopters;, ca. 1953

The photographs include a wide-variety of techniques: albumen prints, Gelatin POP and Gelatin DOP images. The subjects include numerous original photos of early balloons and airplanes from the early 1900s. The pre-World War I airplane photographs cover numerous and varied planes, some of which proved to be successful designs and some that were simply failures. The collection also includes numerous reprints of historic photos.

The lantern slides include a nearly complete selection of painted slides from the early 1900s depicting the history of aeronautics. Other lantern slides from that same time period depict various gliders, balloons, and early airplanes. One of the more interesting series of slides depicts what appears to be a complicated steam powered airplane that dwarfs its crew and bystanders.

The postcards range from the early 1900s to the late 1960s. They are sorted more or less by the natural division of plane evolution marked by the periods before, during and after World War I and World War II.