Mohawk Airlines Records, 1948-1967

Summary

Creator:
Mohawk Airlines.
Abstract:
Company founded in 1945 as Robinson Airlines Corporation; name changed in 1952. Headquarters: Ithaca, N.Y. Collection includes legal files, correspondence, clippings, press releases, statistics, financial records, reports.
Extent:
48.0 linear ft.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Mohawk Airlines Records,
&su_name;

Background

Scope and content:

The Mohawk Airlines Records consists of legal files, publicity, statistical files, financial files, bound reports, general files, and miscellaneous. There are no employee records in the collection.

Legal files relate to various cases, incidents, events, and issues; the material includes briefs, petitions, motions, testimony, reports, applications, and other forms of legal data. Publicity includes newspaper clippings, news releases, newsletters, advertising, and information bulletins. Statistical files contains assorted statistics such as passenger load and airport activity. Financial files includes bound and unbound financial statements and operating forecasts. Bound reports concern various aspects of the business, including station traffic, traffic flow analyses, schedules, and so on. General files consists of financial forecasts and marketing department material. Miscellaneous material includes books, films, and general information on local service airlines and helicopter airlines.

Biographical / historical:

Mohawk Airlines began operations in 1945 as Robinson Airlines out of Ithaca, New York. In 1948 its headquarters relocated to Utica, New York, and the name was changed to Mohawk Airlines in 1952 when the company was purchased by Robert Peach. Mohawk Airlines operated in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, primarily in New York and Pennsylvania, from the mid-1940s until its acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972; at one point it also experimented with helicopter airline service to the Adirondacks.

At its height, the company employed over 2,200 people. The company pioneered several technical and social aspects of regional airline operations, including being the first airline in the United States to hire an African American flight attendant (1958), the first airline to use a centralized computer-based reservation service (1961), and the first regional airline to utilize flight simulators (1965).

Arrangement:

Legal files are subdivided by the identification number assigned by Mohawk Airlines and are in chronological (?) order. Publicity, general files, and miscellaneous are arranged alphabetically by type of material. Statistical files, bound reports, and financial files are in no particular order.

Access and use

Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Terms of access:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Preferred citation:

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Mohawk Airlines Records,

Location of this collection:
Special Collections Research Center
Syracuse University Libraries
Bird Library, Room 600
Syracuse, NY 13244, United States
Link to repository site
Contact:
315.443.2697
scrc@syr.edu