Photograph album, loose photographic prints, slide transparencies, photographic negatives, printed materials, newspaper clippings, and videotape documenting the history of Love Field airport.

Love Field is owned and operated by the City of Dallas Department of Aviation. It is named for Lieutenant Moss L. Love, who was killed during a training flight at San Diego, California, on September 4, 1913. The airfield was developed by private business entities and the first flights began in January, 1917. On October 19, 1917, Love Field was leased to the United States Army as an air training base. After World War I, the airfield was again used for commercial business. In 1927, the City purchased 167 acres of the field and passenger service began. Major additions to the land were acquired in 1931 (from the development Love Field Acres) and 1941. The airport presently rests on 1,300 acres of land.

Love Field became an army field again in 1942 and served during World War II as headquarters for the United States Air Transport Command. The facilities were greatly expanded by the Army Air Corps before transferring back to the City of Dallas. By 1964, Love Field was the largest air terminal in the Southwest.

Growth of air traffic in Texas led to the establishment of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in 1974 and the sudden reversal of Love Field's prominence. By the next year it had lost all its carriers except Southwest Airlines to the new facility. In 1979 when the Civil Aeronautics Board ordered all carriers to use the new airport, Southwest, an intrastate carrier, refused to do so and won a lawsuit to continue using Love Field. Further restrictions on flights included the Shelby and Wright Amendments, in which Federal law prohibited Southwest Airlines from providing direct flights between Love Field and any point beyond Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Alabama.

The collection includes a hand-mounted photographic album documenting the “Flyin’ Frolic,” an air show that took place at Love Field in November, 1918, prior to the City of Dallas’ purchase of the airfield in 1923. The album, presumably photographed and assembled by Ray Huffines, U.S. Army Aerial Photo Section No. 38, documents the buildings of Love Field, air shows and aircraft activities, and daily life for soldiers at the airfield. The album was partially dismantled and loose prints are in a separate folder. A separate series of loose photographic prints, in both black-and-white and color, includes a number of subjects relating to aircraft, structures, and daily activities at the airport from the 1920s to the 1980s, and special events taking place at Love Field, such as a historical reenactment of Charles Lindbergh’s flight and visits to Dallas by several United State Presidents on Air Force One. Expansion, renovation, and construction of the airport facility during the 1970s and 1980s is also documented. There is also a set of slides about the history of Love Field, as well as a ¾” Beta-format videotape on Love Field titled “Aviation - Then & Now” produced for broadcast on local Dallas cable access channels.

Paper materials consist of printed promotional materials regarding the airport; its operations and history from 1960 and 1987 (including Dallas Love Field 70th Anniversary items); a photocopy of a 1932 ordinance on airport operations; several studies and papers about Dallas Love Field 1950 -1986; biographical information on Lt. Moss Lee Love; newspaper and magazine clippings on Love Field 1929 -1993; and several postcards of the airport. The collection is comprised of two major series, visual materials and paper-based materials. The photographs series are arranged by subject matter and by format, and the paper materials by subject matter.