The Robert G.
Hufford Photographic Negative Collection

     
When the American Aviation
Historical Society was formed in 1956, many of the founding members were
active aviation photographers. They were part of a widely dispersed
fraternity of young men who ventured out to photograph friendly airfields
with their 616 or Argus C-3 cameras to capture the unusual and interesting
aircraft they found on film. Their inspirations were the professional
photographers such as Howard Levy and Gordon Williams, whose work they had
followed in aviation magazines. But they were mostly amateurs who
processed their own negatives and prints to save money. They began to
build collections of aircraft negatives. To expand their collections and
gain images from other geographic areas they established trading
agreements with other aviation photographers. They began shooting multiple
negatives of the aircraft they photographed.  A relatively large
community of aircraft negative trading was formed. The American Aviation
Historical Society was formed, partly, to help provide accurate
information to allow members of the aviation photographer group to
identify the photographs in their collections and to aid in group
communications.
     One of the members of the aviation photographers’
fraternity was Robert G. Hufford. Bob Hufford was among the first 100
members of the AAHS. He began photographing aircraft in the 1930s. In the
1990s Bob donated his collection of 4×5 and 2.25×2.25 black and white
aircraft negatives (there are a few color transparencies as well) to the
Society. The collection consists of over 16,000 negatives taken by Bob.
The aircraft Bob photographed were primarily commercial airline and
corporate transports. They represent an extensive record of commercial
aviation in America in the postwar period through the introduction of first
and second generation turbine transports. The collection has been
completely cataloged and is being digitized as volunteer time allows.
Negative numbers in the AAHS online image database that begin with 30000
and range to 46223 cover the Hufford collection.
     Bob Hufford was an executive for Kodak dealing
with the motion picture industry. His duties required regular meetings at
their headquarters in Rochester, New York. Air transportation, at the
time, allowed the passenger a great deal of latitude in choosing their
route from point "A" to point "B." For Bob, the trip from Los
Angeles to Rochester would stop in New Orleans, Miami, Vancouver, British
Columbia or Montego Bay. Bob also drove to western airports on weekends
and on holidays.  The negatives in the Hufford Collection represent
hundreds of airports. Bob was very organized regarding his negative
collection. Each negative is identified with the exact aircraft
. . .