Contributions – AAF Collection

Four Hundred Items

Feb 082013

Items Thanks to the generosity of over 50 contributors, the AAF Collection has grown to 400 items! Started back in November 2006, the AAF Collection offers historical documents about the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

You will now find hundreds of class books with pictures of thousands of cadets as they trained to be pilots, bombardiers, navigators, gunners and radio operators. See the actual training manuals they used. Discover what life was like as an air cadet on dozens of Army Air Fields across the United States.

400 Items

As the AAF Collection continues to grow, I hope you’ll consider contributing items from your own collection, or that of your parents’, or grandparents’ legacy. Many people enjoy learning about this era in our history.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you

Thanks to all those who have taken the time and effort to contribute to the collection. Ben Guttery, aviation collector extraordinaire, contributed over half the items you see in the collection. Larry Caldwell contributed many items and he supported this site from its beginning. Stephen Quint and Bronson Gardner have each contributed over ten items.

Thanks to the visitors to this site. I always enjoy hearing that you found a parent, grandparent or relative pictured in an item from the collection. Or, that you found a rare document you were unable to find anywhere else.

A special thanks to all World War II veterans, and the veterans who left a comment here about their experiences during the war.

We’re well on the way toward 500 items. You can keep tabs on the collection via the statistics page, or see What’s New right now.

Server Switch

Contributions, Websites No Responses »

Dec 122012

The AAF Collection website has switched to a different Internet hosting provider, HostGator. This should help the availability and reliability of the site. If you notice something that’s not quite right during this transition, please notify the curator.

Some past visitors have incorrectly shared links to the AAF Collection. These links are usually posted on message boards, forums and blogs. Since they were incorrectly copied, they will now result in an error message. If so, simply click on View Items and browse for the item you want to see.

Attention contributors! The user name and password has changed for those who want to upload contributions to the collection. Please notify the curator to request a new user name and password.

Are you interested in starting your own website? I recommend HostGator. Use the special coupon code ARMYAIRFORCES for a 25% discount off your own hosting account. You will also be helping to support this site.

Collections of Collections

Collections, Contributions, View Items No Responses »

Aug 262012

I added a new feature I call Collections to the site. These are groups of various and different items that are related in some way. For instance, a Collection can contain all the items contributed from one veteran’s collection. So even though items have different subject matter or come from different air fields, they are still grouped together as a collection.

While you view the list of items, you’ll see a View Collection indication on some items. This means an item is part of a collection. Click it to view a list of all items in the collection.

You can also browse the collections available. Choose Browse the Collection in the Choose an Action drop-down box. Then choose Collections in the Browse drop-down box. You’ll then be able to select one of the available collections. More collections will be added.

Or, choose Summarize under Choose an Action, then Collections to see more information about each collection.

The Collections feature within the AAF Collection is yet another way to view relationships between items. It may lead you to some interesting discoveries.

Contribution Caveats

Contributions 2 Responses »

Sep 012011

If you are interested in contributing items to the AAF Collection, please keep in mind:

Free: All documents in the collection can be viewed or downloaded free of charge.

No Compensation: You will not be compensated for submitting material.

How-To: Upload Items

Contributions, FTP, How-To, Photographing, Scanning 3 Responses »

Sep 012011

If you want to contribute an item to the AAF Collection, first create images by either scanning or photographing each page of the item. (See How-To: Scan Items or How-To: Photograph Items.) You can then upload your image files to this website, as explained here.

How-To: Photograph Items

Contributions, How-To, Photographing No Responses »

Sep 012011

If you want to contribute an item to the AAF Collection and you have a digital camera, you can use it to take a digital image of each page of the item. If the item is a newspaper or something larger than your scanner bed, a digital camera works well.

Here are some recommended settings and tips if you use a digital camera to photograph your document.

How-To: Scan Items

Contributions, How-To, Scanning No Responses »

Sep 012011

If you want to contribute an item to the AAF Collection and you have a scanner connected to your computer, you can use it to scan each page of the item. If it is too large for the scanner bed, you may wish to use a digital camera instead. See How-To: Photograph Items.

How-To: Contribute Items

Contributions, How-To 24 Responses »

Sep 012011

I hope you will consider contributing items to the AAF Collection. It is a great way to share historical and educational information about the Army Air Forces during World War II.

Contributing an item is fairly easy. The hardest part is creating an electronic, or digital, copy of your item. Whether it is a book, magazine, newspaper, document, postcard or photograph, you must be able to create an image of each page of the item. You can do this using a scanner, or a digital camera.