Documenting Flight: The Parsons Family
Events at the Harbour Grace airstrip drew significant interest on both sides of the Atlantic. The international press regularly featured updates on transatlantic aviation and relied on first-hand coverage from locals on the ground.
One such local family, the Parsonses, were heavily involved in this documentation. Reuben Parsons was Harbour Grace’s resident photographer.
Although a furniture-maker by trade, Reuben’s passion was photography – a hobby he inherited from his uncle, famed Newfoundland photographer Simeon Henry Parsons. Reuben extensively photographed his hometown in the early twentieth century, recording street scenes, landscapes, and local architecture.
He was also present for every transatlantic flight, capturing each arrival on glass plates with his large view camera. His remarkable photos are a lasting memory of this exciting era of aviation.
Bill Parsons, ca. 1980.
Similarly, his son Bill Parsons played a documentarian role. In 1929, at the age of 22, Bill worked as a stringer for the Associated Press (AP).
As their contact on the ground, he would send the news agency various details of each flight – the time of arrival and departure, the type of plane, the weather, and any other relevant information – for publication.
However, the fragile nature of his father’s glass-plated photographs made transportation to AP’s Boston office difficult. Bill’s solution was to take his own pictures using a smaller Kodak film camera. These film rolls would then be sent to Whitbourne, put aboard the express train to St. John’s, and shipped to Boston.
The photos would usually arrive five days later and be published in various newspapers, such as the New York Times. Memorably, Bill captured Amelia Earhart just before she left the airstrip (below); in her right hand, one can see Rose Archibald’s famous gift: a thermos of soup.
Bill Parsons’s famous photo of Amelia Earhart prior to takeoff, 1932.
Years later, Bill collaborated with a local journalist, Bill Bowman, then editor of the regional newspaper, The Compass, to write a book on Harbour Grace aviation.
Published in 1983, The Challenge of the Atlantic is an illustrated catalogue of the heyday of transatlantic flight for this area. It features Parsons’s research, memories, and original photographs. Though out of print today, the book remains a vital document of community memory.