Lilian Bland (1878 – 1971) was an aeronautical engineer and the first woman in Ireland to fly a powered aircraft. Arguable, she is also the first woman in the world to design, build and fly an aeroplane. This book, funded through The Markievicz Award 2020 forms part of a wider series of work that will research the role and representation of Irish women in the aeronautical industry during the Decade of Centenaries 2012 – 2023 and beyond. Started making aeroplane looks at Bland’s aviation workbook of 1909 which chronicles the design and build of her biplane, The Mayfly. It examines how even the most innocuous marks in this workbook, descriptive and equivocal, reveal her ambition for flight.
Mimeograph artist book, 105mm x 148mm x 5mm, 2020. Twenty one page book + front and back cover, printed on a Gestetner Neo Cyclostyle duplicator c. 1890 on Munken Pure Rough 120gsm paper using brown Gestetner ink.
Click on images below to view a selection of pages from this book. Permission credit: lilianbland.ie
