REVIEWS : Various Media

Famous Women Aviators 2008 Calendar by Michael Gunby Available at Lulu.com Official website at Lulu: stores.lulu.com/gubena Review by Barbara Peterson Michael Gunby is a photographer who uses antique photos as his medium - from aviation to the American Indian to early Hollywood to jazz, and so on.

Every December, various bookstores such as Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million get in a humongous amount of calendars for the upcoming year. I go through these every year, hoping to see calendars full of fencers - sabre, foil and epee, or women aviators - past or present, and every year I'm disappointed.

Well...disappointed isn't the right word. I look, but I never expect to see them, and since I don't see them, I'm not surprised, just resigned.

Those topics are just too esoteric for the general public, I suppose.

Which is why it was nice to discover Michael Gunby's calendar of Famous Women Aviators, on offer at Lulu.com (a self-publishing company.) I overlook the fact that on the site, it's called The Most Sexy Women Aviators, a transparent attempt to get guys to order it for one reason only!

While this calendar is "self-published," it is made of quality materials - heavy card stock for the covers in full color, and bright white, sturdy paper for the calendar pages.

The photos of the pilots have been tinted in various pale colors. This is Michael Gunby's speciality in all his works. Most of them look very nice, except for August, where the dresses of Moisant and Quimby have lost all their detail.

While the photos are nice -- most of them are well-known, for example Quimby in her purple flying suit propping her plane, or posing with Mathilde Moisant -- there are a few errors in the text.

For January, for example, Thea Rasche's name is spelled properly - Rasche. For September, the E is left off. Also for January, Gladys O'Donnell's name is spelled with a lower case D.

For April, Katherine Stinson's name is spelled with a C.

Finally, December is given over to Jeana Yaeger, the woman who flew around the world in 1989 with Bert Rutan. While Yaeger is much to be admired, she doesn't fit in with the rest of these pioneer pilots!

The price of $19.95 seems a bit steep considering that we're already into the year 2008, nevertheless it's a beautiful work and well worth purchasing.

Gunby also offers a series of famous women aviators for $25 (presumably the same photos as in the calendar, but not bound.)

January	7 female pilots and Dr. Rohrbach, forming the 99s in 1929
February	Amelia Earhart
March	Anne Morrow
April	Katherine Stinson
May	Amy Johnson
June	Mary Haizlip
July	Harriet Quimby
August	Matile Moisant and Harriet Quimby
September	Thea Rasche
October	Ruth Elder
November	Four single photos: Ruth Nichols, Amelia Earhart, Bobbie Trout, Phoebe Omlie
December	Jeana Yaeger