Guide to the Papers of Charles and John Ulm, 1803-2015

Summary

Collection number:

MS 9923 et al

Creator:

Ulm, Charles, 1898-1934 and Ulm, John Anthony

Extent:

2.97 metres and (8 boxes + 2 folio boxes + 1 folio packet + 3 folders + 1 packet)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Charles and John Ulm, National Library of Australia [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

MS 9923 comprises papers collected by Charles Ulm as well as those collected by his son, John. The papers comprise newspaper cuttings, stamps, commemorative envelopes, correspondence, brochures, research notes, articles, reviews, certificates, talks, handwritten notes, photocopies of government records, business papers, photographs, maps and ephemera. The largest series in the collection is the commemorative and philatelic material, comprising stamps, commemorative envelopes, tribute albums, newspaper cuttings, articles and reviews relating to the 50th anniversary of the first trans-Pacific flight. The 1928 flight saw Charles Ulm fly with Charles Kingsford-Smith on the Southern Cross from Oakland, California to Brisbane, Australia (8 boxes, 1 fol. box).

The Acc09.124 instalment comprises a draft cable written by Charles Ulm on 8 June 1928 from Fiji. The cable is written on the letterhead of HMCS Pioneer, addressed to Q.S.T. Sunflight Sydney (possibly the finance and support team financed by Sun newspapers). It tells them that they (Charles Kingsford-Smith and Ulm) are on their way from Fiji to Brisbane, with plans to depart the day after for Sydney, but would return to Brisbane for a public tour within two weeks. The text includes: "In 19 or 20 hours will be in dear Aussie again... Our landing in Brisbane will be the culmination of 10 months hard work the realization of Smithy's and my ambitions to be first to really cross the Pacific by air". John Ulm notes that the draft was on the HMCS Pioneer letterhead because while Smithy flew the empty plane from Suva to Naselai Beach for their departure from Fiji after refueling, Ulm and others travelled courtesy of the colonial governor on his launch, Pioneer (1 fol. packet).

The Acc10.077 instalment comprises a group of miscellaneous papers relating to Charles and John Ulm. Included is a typescript of John Ulm's address at the 27th Annual Arthur Butler Memorial Lecture, Powerhouse Museum, 2009, titled "Places, planes and politics", biographical information about John Ulm and reminiscences of his father, photocopies of National Archives of Australia documents and extracts from publications and articles that relate to Charles Ulm, and a copy of the Ulm family tree (2 folders).

The Acc12.060 instalment comprises three wallets of broad ranging material including press identification, US military currency, and papers and articles discussing the Korean War. It also includes a speech and recollections of John Ulm on his service in the Second World War (1 packet).

The Acc13.204 instalment comprises photographs, documents and other ephemera mostly relating to Charles Ulm's trans-pacific flight with Charles Kingsford Smith. Included are bound illuminated addresses from the Municipalities of Mascot and Marrickville, a bound presentation book signed by young fans from Burwood, Einfield and Strathfield; a framed memorandum from the New Zealand Military Forces notifying Ulm of his appointment as a Captain to the New Zealand Air Force; framed certificate of Membership to the Adventurers' of the World Club. Most items are captioned with notes made by John Ulm during his research of his father's flying career (1 folio box).

The Acc16.061 instalment comprises papers dating from 1928 to 2015, featuring correspondence, including discussions with Dick Smith AM regarding his request to the Prime Minister's office to confer a posthumous knighthood upon Charles Ulm; newspaper clippings; handwritten notes; material drafted by John Ulm for various publications; photocopied report on the QANTAS Bangkok accident on 23 September 1999 (1 folder).

Biographical Note:

Charles Thomas Phillippe Ulm was born on 18 October 1898 at Middle Park, Melbourne, to Emile Gustave Ulm (a Parisian-born artist) and his wife Ada Emma, née Greenland. He was educated in Melbourne then in Sydney, where he worked as a clerk in a stockbroking office. On 16 September 1914, at the age of sixteen, Ulm enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force, under the name of 'Charles Jackson', stating he was 20 years of age. Ulm was amongst the first troops to land at Gallipoli on 25 April 1925, but not long afterwards was wounded in action. He returned to Australia and was discharged from the AIF. In January 1917 he re-enlisted under his own name and served with the 45th Infantry Battalion on the Western Front. In July 1918 he was badly wounded and evacuated to Britain, before being demobilised in March 1919.

Ulm married Isabel Amy Winter on 20 November 1919. In 1921 his first and only child, John, was born. In 1927 Charles and Isabel were divorced and Ulm re-married on 29 June 1927 to Mary Josephine Callaghan.

In 1927 Ulm and Charles Kingsford Smith circumnavigated Australia in a Bristol Tourer in 10 days and five hours, more than halving the existing record. The pair then planned the first trans-Pacific flight from the United States of America to Australia. On 31 May 1928 with two American crewmen, they flew the Southern Cross from Oakland, California and reached Brisbane on 9 June after 83 hours and 19 minutes flying time. In September of that year, the pair made the first trans-Tasman flight, from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand, in 14 hours.

In December 1928 Ulm and Kingsford Smith formed Australian National Airways (ANA) to operate unsubsidised passenger, mail and freight services. In March 1929 the pair decided to fly to London to buy aircraft and were lost for 13 days after the Southern Cross was forced to land near the north-west coast of Australia. At the time, there were rumours that the two planned the disappearance for a publicity stunt. Whilst the pair did resume their flight to England on 25 June, Ulm continued to primarily devote himself to managing ANA. Due to the Depression, the company went into liquidation in February 1933. Ulm bought one of the remaining aeroplanes and called it Faith in Australia.

Flying the Faith in Australia, Ulm took part in a number of important expeditions. In 1933 he flew to England with 'Scotty' Allan and Sir Gordon Taylor as part of an around the world trip. The trip was aborted and the three returned to Australia creating a new world record of six days, 17 hours and 56 minutes. In April 1934 Ulm flew the first official mail from Australia to New Zealand, and in August he carried the first official airmail from Australia to New Guinea and back.

In September 1934 Ulm formed Great Pacific Airways Limited, in the hope of establishing an air service between Australia, Canada and the United States. He bought an Airspeed Envoy, Stella Australis, and on 3 December 1934, with a crew of two, Ulm flew from Oakland to Hawaii. Stella Australis failed to arrive. Despite an extensive sea search, no trace of the plane or the crew was ever found.

John Ulm

John Ulm was born in June 1921, the only child of Charles Ulm and his first wife, Isabel. He was only 13 years old when his father's plane, the Stella Australis, went down in the Pacific Ocean.

John's interest in aviation saw him have a long career at Qantas, including roles such as the Chief Press and Information Officer in the 1960s.

Throughout his life, John has been active in researching and commemorating his late father.

John lives in Sydney.

Bibliographic Reference(s)

• Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 12, Australian National University. p.302-303. Also available online http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120337b.htm.

Collection Retrieval Advice:

Please note: each consignment in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there are multiple Box 1's). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.

Provenance:

The collection has dual provenance. It consists of papers collected by Charles Ulm, and also items collected about Ulm by his son, John, which have been kept together because of the interrelated nature of their creation. The original instalment was donated to the Library by John Ulm in June 2003 in conjunction with an exhibition held at the National Library of Australia to mark the 75th Anniversary of his father's 1928 Trans-Pacific flight.

Arrangement:

The papers d were received in a semi-ordered state. Many of the papers were filed in manila files and envelopes and formed logical sequences. Other papers were not in any discernable order and have been arranged by Library staff, with loose material interfiled as appropriate.

Where possible, many of the file titles have been retained. For titles that may not be obvious to researchers, Library staff have amended these to reflect the contents of the files. Many of the files received have Ulm's initials CTP (Charles Thomas Phillippe) written on them and these too have been retained. Library staff have given names to files with no titles.

Container List:

Series	File	Box
1	1	1
1	2	Folio Box
1	3-4	1
2	1-3	1
3	1	1
3	2	Map Drawer
4	1-3	2
4	4	Folio Box
4	5	2
5	1-3	2
5	4	Folio Box
5	5	2
5	6	Map Drawer
5	7	Folio Box
5	8-9	3
6	1-2	3
7	1	3
8	1-3	3
8	4	Folio Box
8	5-13	4
8	14-16	5
9	1-4	5
9	5-10	6
10	1-3	6
10	4-8	7
11	1-3	7
11	4	Folio Box
12	1	7
12	2-4	8

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Exploration
History
Society and culture

Conditions Governing Access:

Available for reference.

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Charles and John Ulm, National Library of Australia [class number, box number and series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

Contact us