![]() Tall and elegant, she was unmistakable at a distance. She created a trademark purple flying costume - a satin jacket with a soft cowl around her head, high laced boots and satin riding pants. John died in an accident a few months later, but Harriet and Matilde went right on flying. A few other women had flown, but none were licensed. Quimby was the first American woman to be licensed as a flyer Matilde soon followed. ![]() Harriet and Matilde enrolled in the school. John Moisant ran a flying school, and he produced his own monoplane. By now, Quimby was a close friend to both John and Matilde Moisant. Flight had only just found its way into the American consciousness, and airplanes were still antedeluvian. In 1910, she covered a so-called International Aviation Tournament. That's not impressive until you realize how primitive autos were, and what a "guy thing" driving was. In 1906, after a ride on an automobile racetrack, she bought her own car. Her writing leaned toward excitement - travel, theater, racecars, flight. She eventually became a full-time photojournalist. In 1903 she went to New York and found work with Leslie's Illustrated Weekly. Instead, she began writing for various magazines. She wanted to become an actress, and, indeed, she's listed as one in the 1900 census.ĭid Harriet Quimby ever do any theater? If she did, we have no record of it. ![]() The Quimby family moved to San Francisco during Harriet's early teens. Quimby's stunning beauty is central to her story, but not in the way we first might think. Of all the early women fliers, few draw us quite the way Harriet Quimby does. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. ![]()
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