Art Deco Weekend: Sky High – Speaker Lea Nickless

When: Saturday, January 18 From 3 P.M. to 4 P.M.

Where: The Wolfsonian FIU, 1001 Washington Avenue

About: Amelia Earhart wasn’t America’s only trailblazing aviatrix! Wolfsonian research curator Lea Nickless invites you to imagine yourself in 1939 Miami, under a sky filled with the hum of racing planes flown by women. Standing tall as first-place champion of the All-American Air Maneuvers’ 50-mile Women’s Sportsman Free-For-All was Edna Gardner Whyte, a nurse-turned-aviator who won 120 racing trophies over her 60-year flying career and trained as many as 5,000 pilots through her successful flight school. Nickless will focus on how Whyte and her female peers dared to tell draconian gender barriers to “eat my dust” and empowered themselves to become legends of the sky. After the talk, we’ll fly up to the 6th floor to view Edna’s 1939 trophy, currently on display in #AUniverseofThings.

Free and open to the public | RSVP to programs@thewolf.fiu.edu

Part of The Wolfsonian’s #ArtDecoWeekend lecture series presented in partnership with the Miami Design Preservation League.