As hard as it is to believe that its Ride the Wind Day again already (boy, does time fly!), things are looking up because that gives us an excuse to launch these photographs of the French test pilot Adrienne Bolland.
Bolland was initially inspired to take up aviation as a means of paying some gambling debts she had amassed while drinking, but her accomplishments in the field came to include becoming the first French woman to receive an aviator’s license, the first woman to fly the treacherous route over the Andes between Chile and Argentina (less than 15 months after receiving her aviator’s license), being honored as a Knight of the Legion of Honor, setting altitude records in both France and South America, and setting a women's record of 212 loops (tying with ten male pilots) in a race around France. Her interests outside of the field of aviation included support for leftist causes such as women’s suffrage and fighting Nazis. During World War II, Bolland joined the French Resistance, which later earned her an advancement to the rank of Officier in France’s Legion of Honor. Bolland died in Paris in 1975 at the age of 79.
These photographs are part of the Hagley Library’s Lammot du Pont collection of aeronautical photographs (Acc. 1975.360). To view a selection of these and other images from this collection, click here.
