USA

040602 - HARRIET QUIMBY: Flying Fair Lady

By Leslie Kerr

One of the first women to fly, the fashionable Harriet Quimby (1875-1912) came of age in the fading years of a gilded era, determined to have more than the life of a farmer’s wife. Beautiful, intelligent, and forever seeking the next adventure when her life ended tragically at age thirty-seven, this extraordinary pioneer had accomplished what most–women or men–only dream about. Here is the remarkable story of Quimby’s groundbreaking work in aviation, photojournalism, fashion design, script writing, and advertising. As a celebrity journalist in New York, she was also a mouthpiece for women, minorities, and social justice issues. “I think I shall do something someday,” she once remarked. This recognition of her legacy is long overdue.