The items in this digital collection were selected from The George Hardie Aviation and Aerospace History Collection held in UWM Libraries' Special Collections. This digital collection consists of ten items, including selected pages from early aviation books, manuals, and catalogs, as well as a number of complete monographs. The items selected for digitization were chosen for their uniqueness and potential usefulness to aviation history researchers. We hope that casual browsers will also enjoy the materials found here. The George Hardie Aviation and Aerospace History Collection in Special Collections at UWM's Golda Meir Library documents the development of modern aviation and aircraft through primary printed sources published from the 1890s to the mid-1960s. Areas of focus in the collection include military, commercial, instructional, and hobbyist aspects of aviation. This digital collection is a work in progress. Originally developed as a set of static web pages in 2005, the collection was updated in the fall of 2006 using CONTENTdm software. The ten items currently presented were scanned from the original print copies held by UWM Libraries' Special Collections. The digital version is provided in three formats: page images, text, and PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format). Users can browse and search all volumes or individual titles. The text version, based on uncorrected OCR (Optical Character Recognition), provides full-text searching capabilities. Although the search results are fairly accurate, there may be some errors due to unusual or small fonts. Users can search all volumes by using a simple keyword search available from the collection’s Home page or by using Advanced Search options. There is also keyword searching available within each individual volume. The PDF version, more suitable for printing, can be accessed by selecting “print version” within each individual title. George Hardie was born in Rockford, Illinois in 1912. When he was a young boy his passion for aviation began with airplane model building and collecting. When he was older, he attempted to graduate to actual flying, but was denied training due to his poor eyesight, so he continued to fill his need for flying through advanced modeling, historical research, study, and writing. In 1954, he received an award from the Milwaukee County Historical Society for an exhibit of Billy Mitchell that he designed and installed at what was then called Mitchell Air Field (now Mitchell International Airport). He has also received many awards for his work in the early history of Wisconsin aviation. During this time, Hardie also became involved in the development of a new organization dedicated to the field of experimental aviation which became known as the Experimental Air Association (EAA). Along with his responsibilities as a founding member, he also was the editor of their monthly newsletter Sport Aviation from 1958 to 1960 and was the organization's official historian. He resumed his participation in the EAA from 1973 to1983 as display designer and historian. Hardie also was a board member of the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) and served as president from 1961 to 1963. Although always active in aviation circles, Hardie bowed out of many of the administrative duties of these organizations to pursue his real passion of researching aviation history. He published articles in dozens of periodicals on many subjects related to Wisconsin aviation and became such a powerful influence in the field that in 1984 he was made a Charter member of the Mitchell Gallery of Flight organization, where he served as secretary, exhibit designer, historian and editor of their newsletter Flightlines. His highest accolade however was to come in 1991, when he was, by unanimous vote, inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame. After that, due to some health concerns, Hardie relegated his activities to research and collection, an area in which he remained active until his death in the summer of 2001. Project Staff: Krystyna K. Matusiak, Digital Collections Librarian, UWM Libraries Rick Krause, Intern, Special Collections, UWM Libraries Rick Krause wishes to thank Digital Collections Librarian Krystyna Matusiak and Special Collections Librarian Max Yela at UWM Libraries, as well as Professor Iris Xie of UWM's School of Information Studies for their help, suggestions, and guidance. Aviation History: Selections from the George Hardie Collection is published by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Copyright � 2006. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved. Pages may be copied by individuals or libraries for personal use, research, teaching or any "fair use" as defined by copyright law. Fair use of copyright-protected works for study, research, and other purposes does not require the permission of the copyright owner provided that the use meets the standard specified in Section 107 of the U. S. Copyright Law. Permission to reproduce materials in this collection for publication or distribution must be obtained from Special Collections at UWM Libraries. Please send us your comments or suggestions regarding the collection. UWM Libraries December, 2006