EWR Turns 80 A History of Newark Liberty International Airport

EWR Turns 80
A History of Newark Liberty International Airport
Curated by James Lewis

Main Library
Exhibition on view April 7 – June 14, 2008
Second and Third Floor Galleries

Media click here.
For a copy of the exhibition booklet click here.

On October 1, 2008, Newark Liberty International Airport will celebrate its 80th birthday. The airport was the first in the New York City metropolitan area, predating LaGuardia Airport by 11 years. Newark’s airport was the first airport in the country, reputedly the first in the world, to have a paved runway and the second in the world to have a terminal building (the Administration Building); and the first air traffic control center.

This exhibit illustrates, mainly through a selection of photographs from the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center’s collections, the airport’s predecessor, Heller Field (a U.S. mail field in north Newark, near Belleville); the construction of the airport in 1928, and later construction projects (Terminals A, B, and C; the monorail); celebrities who visited the airport; the National Guard and U.S. Army at the airport; early and modern airport operations (i.e., control towers); the airport as a cargo and air mail facility (it is now a major FEDEX hub for the northeast); the airline, People Express, that doubled passenger traffic at Newark Liberty International Airport in the 1980s; Continental Airlines at EWR; women in aviation; and much more.

Honorary Chairperson
Susan Bass Levin, Port Authority of NY & NJ

Honorary Committee
Geoffrey Arend, Air Cargo News
C. Louis Bassano, FedEx
Arlene Feldman, NJ Aviation Association
Al Frank, The Star-Ledger
John Jacoby, Newark Liberty International Airport
Pamela Jasper, The Organization of Black Airline Pilots
Richard Koles, Historian and Photographer
The Honorable Frank Lautenberg, United States Senate
David Morris, Retired, Newark Liberty International Airport
Shea Oakley, Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum of NJ
Marilyn Patierno, North Jersey Chapter of the Ninety-Nines
John B. Perry, Council for Airport Opportunity
Martin J. Schwartz, Essex County Building Trades Council
Monica Slater Stokes, Continental Airlines
Stephanie Vigilotti, PrimeFlight Aviation Services

This exhibition was made possible by a grant
from the Port Authority of NY & NJ.