Sarah Clark
A Different Sort of Air Force Heroine
| Not all Air Force heroes and heroines are fighter pilots. One unsung heroine, Sarah B. Clark, made an invaluable contribution to the preservation of Air Force history. Her influence is still felt today – nearly 90 years after she entered government service. |
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| For those who research the U.S. military use of aircraft, engines, propellers, and equipment, the Sarah Clark Files at the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland are a valuable resource. This collection contains a wealth of information about the technical, contractual, managerial, and fiscal history of Air Force development from 1917 into the 1950s. That this collection exists today is a tribute to Sarah Clark, a very special civil servant who dedicated her career to preserving the history of Air Force research and development. |
Sarah Clark spent her 39-year federal career managing the research, development, and test records created by managers, engineers, scientists, test pilots, and acquisition personnel at McCook Field, Wright Field, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Miss Clark was born Sadie B. Clark in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, on August 11, 1887. She graduated from Ft. Wayne High School in 1907 and then attended International Business College in Ft. Wayne where she studied stenography and general business. From 1908 until 1918 she worked as a stenographer at S. F. Bowser & Co. in Ft. Wayne.
When the U.S. entered the First World War in 1917, Miss Clark revealed considerable self confidence and unabashed ambition on her application for Civil Service employment when she described the position she was "most qualified for" as that of an "executive." She wasted little time realizing her ambition.
In January 1918, she was assigned to the Production Engineering Department of the Bureau of Aircraft Production at McCook Field in downtown Dayton. Her first job title was "Production Expert" in the civilian organization charged with acquiring badly needed military aircraft for the Army Air Service during the War.
Miss Clark took her government oath of office on January 10, 1919 and went to work at McCook Field in north Dayton. The Production Engineering Department was soon reorganized into the Army Signal Corps' Airplane Engineering Division at McCook Field, and Miss Clark was named Chief of Central Files, only nine months after entering federal service. She remained in that job – under several job titles and organizational realignments1 – until her retirement.
In 1923, Sadie B. Clark changed her name in the official record to Sarah B. Clark. All references refer to her as "Miss Clark," suggesting that she never married.
In 1927, Miss Clark and the Central Files moved to the Materiel Division's new home east of Dayton at Wright Field. She managed a staff of analysts and clerks charged with collecting, indexing, filing, storing, preserving, retrieving, and referencing all files generated by management and research offices at McCook and Wright Fields.
Around 1914, the Army Adjutant General's Office, charged with the task of standardizing Army correspondence and other records, adapted the Dewey Decimal System of library book classification to produce the Central Decimal Filing System.2 Miss Clark used this system in her early days at McCook Field to index the Engineering Division's central files. She spent the rest of her career expanding and improving that system. As the Air Service became the Army Air Corps, then the Army Air Forces, and finally the U.S. Air Force, the volume of files, records, and reports generated by the R&D organizations at Wright Field exploded, especially during the massive military buildup during World War II.
When McCook Field closed in 1927, Miss Clark moved to Wright Field, east of Dayton. In 1941 she had a home address in the heart of downtown Dayton. This was probably a hotel or YWCA. The address was directly on the trolley line out to Wright Field. Housing in Dayton during WWII was at a premium, and Miss Clark's 1941 address was definitely not in a residential area.
The central files repository relocated several times as it expanded. The collection contained general correspondence detailing management of the Engineering Division and of Wright Field. Perhaps of most interest today are the research and development files and drawings generated by Wright Field engineers, scientists, and test personnel dedicated to researching and developing new aeronautical technologies and transferring the technologies into winged craft. The evolution of aviation technology at McCook and Wright Fields can be traced through the files maintained by Miss Clark. Her collection also contained tens of thousands of official photographs taken at Wright Field. Each was carefully numbered and filed with indexes created to match the photograph number with its appropriate caption.
Sarah Clark managed the Central Files Branch with firm discipline; she required that detailed lists be prepared indicating the complete title of every folder in each box. These box lists today serve as the key to locating our information from the past.
Wright Field Central Files, like those of other federal agencies during World War II, grew so large the local office could no longer manage the volume of material. In 1955 Sarah Clark reported 63,000 cubic feet of files in her custody. The increased volume, coupled with a drastic drawdown of personnel in the post-war era, left her – and thousands of other records managers throughout the nation – with a mountain of paper to maintain and fewer people to care for it.
The Air Force addressed the problem by changing records management policy. Microfilming of records was encouraged, followed by destruction of the paper records (a practice no longer observed today). Also, Wright Field Central File areas were to be dramatically downsized and USAF files dispersed to Federal Records Centers in Kansas City, St. Louis and Suitland, Maryland. Sarah Clark began planning for the changes, but she undoubtedly had mixed emotions. Although maintenance of the collection had become nearly impossible because of its size, the Central Files represented her life's work and, far more importantly, the complete record of research and development in the Air Force from 1917. She probably also had reservations about the standardized USAF filing system that was mandated throughout the Air Force, replacing the Central Decimal Filing System she had worked with and maintained throughout the years. Sarah Clark retired in 1956.
As Air Force records managers and archivists processed this unique collection of documents they realized the files contained a wealth of information on the evolution of aviation technology and the early days of aeronautical research and development. Additionally, records managers were impressed by the enormous quantity and meticulous order of the files and the extensive box lists that accompanied them. They were so impressed, in fact, that organizers of the fifth United States Air Force Records Management Conference took the extraordinary step of naming the entire group of records the "Sarah Clark Files." The certificate designating the "Sarah Clark Files" was signed by every USAF MAJCOM commander in 1960 – an unprecedented honor accorded her by the fighting personnel and support organizations that recognized Wright Field's contribution to the USAF and Miss Clark's contribution to saving the historical record.
A special plaque commemorating her "efficient and orderly collection of document files … representing billions of dollars in technical knowledge" was presented to Miss Clark by Maj. Gen. Joseph R. Holzapple, Commander of the Wright Air Development Center.
Eventually, the Sarah Clark Files were broken up. Most of the files were transferred to the Washington National Records Center in Suitland, Maryland, along with the certificate naming the files in honor of Miss Clark. The Sarah Clark Files moved again in 1996 from the Suitland Records Center to the new National Archives II in College Park, Maryland, where most of the collection is today. It consists of 1,774 ft. of central decimal correspondence (1916-49), 3,438 ft. of research and development project contract files (1921-51), and 400 rolls of microfilms of research and development technical reports (1928-51).
Requests for information from the Sarah Clark Files at are handled by the Modern Military History organization, part of the Office of Record Services.
Over the years, numerous aviation historians have discovered valuable information in the files as they trace development of technologies, projects, specific aircraft, and of activities that occurred at McCook and Wright Field. There are no computerized finding aids, and the organization of the Sarah Clark Files takes some getting used to. Still, the collection remains perhaps the premier historical resource for the golden age of Air Force aircraft, engines, propellers, and equipment in the world. This is almost exclusively due to the foresight, dedication, and attention to detail of Miss Sarah Clark – a civil servant who took on an impossible job and carried it out to the best of her ability.3
1. Airplane Engineering Department, Aviation Section, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, U.S. Army, established October 13, 1917. Redesignated Airplane Engineering Division and transferred to Bureau of Aircraft Production, August 31, 1918. Redesignated Technical Division, January 1, 1919. Redesignated Engineering Division, Air Service, May 13, 1919. Redesignated Materiel Division, Air Corps, October 15, 1926. Redesignated Materiel Center (MC), Army Air Forces (AAF), March 6, 1942. Redesignated Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), by General Order 16, MC, April 6, 1942. New organization, designated Engineering Division, established under AFMC by Notice 103, AFMC, June 7, 1942. AFMC redesignated successively Materiel Command, April 15, 1943; AAF Materiel Command, June 15, 1944; AAF Materiel and Services Command, summer 1944; AAF Technical Service Command, September 1, 1944; Air Technical Service Command, July 1, 1945; and Air Materiel Command (AMC), March 13, 1946. Engineering Division transferred from AMC to Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) by Notice 77, AMC, April 3, 1951. ARDC redesignated Air Force Systems Command (AFSC); and Engineering Division redesignated Aeronautical Systems Division of AFSC, effective April 1, 1961, by Letter AFOMO 590M, Department of the Air Force (DAF), March 20, 1961. This organizational history comes from the Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States, Records of United States Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations (Record Group 342) on the web.
2. Mabel E. Deutrich, "History of the Decimal Filing System in the War Department," National Archives Seminar [Paper] on Recordkeeping Practices, 14 September 1956, MS, National Archives Library, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
3. We are indebted to Wright Patterson AFB historians, NARA subject specialists, and NASM Reference Archivists for their assistance in the preparation of this article.
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