Becoming a WW1 Aviation Historian

how does one become it??? i know quite a bit for my age( 17) and this would be like a dream to me(that or flyin). i am very interested in becomin one and i was wonderin how do u become one. college?? walk in from street??? plz help me

Voss

Voss,

>i am very interested in becomin one and i was
>wonderin how do u become one.

Most people here have quite a personal collection of data or photographs or simply knowledge. Most here usually have a good library of rare texts and books on WWI Aviation as well. As to becoming 'one' I think all you need is an active interest to search out the histroy and activities of the period and then share that knowledge some way. Whether it is posting to a forum like here, publishing to a local journal, publishing to a website, publishing your own website or publishing a book. There is no real formal process for it, IMO you are pretty much adjudged by yor output and the value of your output.

Hope that helps.




cam

[MilesC]

I would agree with Cam. As the Nike commercials state "Just do it!".

If there is a particular area that interests you head to the local library or University library and find what you can to read on WWI aviation. Then try the internet (these are free), after that you will have to buy books and magasines. There has been a pile of information produced in magasines like Over the Front, Cross and Cockade, J Can. Aviation Historical Soc., etc. Many of these are finally getting back issues out on CD. I frequent old bookstores in my hometown and when I travel. It is amazing what you can find. I have many of the aces biographies that were cranked out as cheap paperbacks in the 1960s.

You have an interest, it is best if you focus your energy in one area, but keep your eyes open. There is lots to keep you going, just so long as you are having fun.

Good luck.

Miles

[leo]

Voss:

You have to have a Historians License. I am the sole vendor and would be happy to sell you one. I also have the concession for Indulgences and all the bridges over the three rivers in Pittsburgh.

Actually, if you want to be one, call yourself one. Let the rest of the world prove you aren't.

[AchimEngels]

Hi there,

well, you are seventeen years of age? I was 15 when I started - let me see - oh yes, that is 15 years ago now. I do not know if anybody, but myself would dare to call me a historian, but I like the way you aproach it.

Nobody can give you the title of an historian. All you have to do is to prove that you are interested in the field. What makes you to an historian is to collect materials (e.g. photographs, documents etc.) study them and tell what you have learned to others. That´s it.

Go ahead son!

Be well and learn.

All the best to your studies here from Germany and the Fokker-Team-Schorndorf

Achim

First develop an interest in the subject. You have that already. Study all those old newspapers, haunt the archives, pester historical societies, build up a collection of data on you pet subject, and when you have an article sorted out, publish it in a small Avn Hist Soc newsletter. Wait for corrections from others....feedback they call it. Keep at it.
After 20-odd years you are good at your subject. When directors of museums ask your opinion ..you have made it, kiddo!

Neville,

>publish it in a small Avn Hist Soc newsletter

Why not publish on the web? Huge readership there. I get a bunch of emails from people all over from the Australian Flying Corps website. Including the RAAF who want to put a couple of pages of into one of their publications.

Before you jumped on the web, I only knew about your work because you contacted the Hawkesbury Museum about Charley. If you had of published your work on the web, I would have found it within a search on google and contacted you that way.

As it is now I periodically search on 'Australian Flying Corps' and other permutations to see what people are self-publishing in the area I am interested in. I think the web is a far better honeypot for publication.




cam

Cam. I wasn't on the web at that time. Your ol' mum said she'd write to her lad in USA...
and I still don't know about Charley. But it seems he had a shed in Sydney, not one backing onto the Richmond grounds.
And the web is for asking questions, not publishing books the size of Sydney A-Z.
And , when other people ask you more questions than you ask them, you are an historian..

Neville,

>Your ol' mum said she'd write to her lad in
>USA...

Shhh.... dont let her catch you saying that, she has been 27 for nigh on 30 years now ;)

>and I still don't know about Charley. But it
>seems he had a shed in Sydney, not one backing
>onto the Richmond grounds.

Whereabouts in Sydney did he live?

>And the web is for asking questions, not
>publishing books the size of Sydney A-Z.

I disagree, it is a publishing medium that does away with the barriers such as cost of copying ( ie making 1000's of books ) and the cost of distribution. It is a great publishing medium for both dynamic and static sites.

The new AFC site has 230 something html pages, the old one had 370 or something html pages. In paper pages terms several of the html pages would be more than one paper page. Plus the added advantage leaving your email address on the page gets you a bunch of great mates. My mum asked about two years ago when I was going to write a book on the AFC, I said I wrote a webpage instead.

Because it is immediate and ongoing publication, several folks such as yourself have added to the AFC page which makes it more like an AFC encyclopaedia than a book. Which is great. I am pretty proud of the AFC page and what we have made it.

When the cost of bandwidth drops further I will write a dynamic site so those that know best can add to it directly, rather than through the limited means of me acting as a type of editor.

>And , when other people ask you more questions
>than you ask them, you are an historian..

lol



cam

[Volker_Nemsch]

Hello Voss!

To become a WW1 aviation historican needs just your interest in WW1 aviation. This is a very good start.

Then you can look around in the subject what interests you most (pilots, aircaft, weapons, tactics, squadron/Staffel history, etc.).

Then you can go deeper into a special subject (like Achim Engels and his Fokker aircraft). Or you can decide to give other "newcomers" like pupils or other interested persons a good start with introducing WW1 aviation to them (that is what I´m trying to do).

No matter what you are doing: it has to make fun first. The reliability of your sources, the quality of your work, good relations to libraries and other interested persons and your ability to give your information to interested persons will give you the degree HISTORICAN.

There are some guys around hiding their sources from the public and they are trying to put themselves in a favourable light. On the other hand they are trying to bring discredit upon others.
They are called (or call themselves) HISTORICANS, too.

You can spend a few years on a university to receive an official degree. It will surely help you to devellop techniques to get and to combine information. But what is this worth if you are not sharing your knowledge with others?

Good work is simply of more value than an official degree!

Just an idea ...