A Path of Heroism Over the Atlantic
The Colonel James Fitzmaurice Collection contains newspapers and other archive material relating to the first east-west transatlantic flight in April 1928. The collection belongs to Teddy Fennelly, well-known historian, aviation enthusiast and author of the book ‘Fitz and the Famous Flight.’ Teddy has collected original archive material relating to the flight and Fitzmaurice for many years and his collection contains many fragile archives, including newsprint, which is particularly challenging to preserve.
To ensure long-term access to this important local collection the original material was conserved and digitised in 2021 with the assistance of Laois Heritage Office and funding from the Heritage Council. Conservation and digitisation of the collection was carried out by Liz D’Arcy, Paperworks Studio for Paper Conservation. Local Studies would like to thank Teddy Fennelly and the Heritage Council for the opportunity to exhibit this collection online.
For more information on Colonel James Fitzmaurice, his thrilling adventure in 1928 and his Laois connections read Teddy Fennelly’s article A joint German-Irish flight into aviation history
Due to the small size of the article print the newspapers are presented here as pdf files to aid legibility.
