This finding aid was created from a MARC collection-level record.
No restrictions on access.
This collection consists of a scrapbook and other mementos kept by Marcelline Garvis from her time as a United Air Lines flight attendant, as well as a few items from later in her life. The types of material include photographs; news clippings; items related to her nursing training; airline ephemera; correspondence; and business cards and other keepsakes she collected from passengers. The scrapbook pages also have extensive handwritten captions.
United Air Lines Flight Attendant Memorabilia [Marcelline Amelia Garvis], NASM.2018.0035, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Sean Dowling, Gift, 2018, NASM.2018.0035
Marcelline Amelia Garvis (1910--2001) was a registered nurse and an early flight attendant for United Air Lines. Garvis graduated from Cook County School of Nursing in Chicago, Illinois in 1933 and was selected as a flight attendant for United Air Lines in 1934. During her time with United, Ms. Garvis was frequently selected for public appearances and promotional work including being interviewed and/or photographed for numerous news pieces. Garvis also frequently did speaking engagements, including serving along with other flight attendants as featured speakers at the closing banquet of the First National Aircraft Production meeting (held in Los Angeles in 1936 by the Society of Automotive Engineers along with the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce and the Air Transport Association of America). Garvis also presented at a symposium on employer-employee relations sponsored by the Business and Professional Women's Club in Alameda, California in 1938 and staffed a booth at the 1939--40 Golden Gate International Exposition, a World's Fair celebration held in San Francisco, California. Garvis left United Air Lines in 1940 to marry.
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at
Collection is arranged by type of material.
Arranged, described, and encoded by Jessamyn Lloyd, 2018. Updated by Jessamyn Lloyd, 2022.