Updating UFO History

George M. Eberhart describes himself as a librarian, cryptozoologist, historian, researcher, and Fortean. He recently published something very noteworthy.

After an effort of many years, I have prepared a comprehensive timeline of UFO history that will be useful to UFO researchers and historians. "UFOs and Intelligence” is an up-to-date retrospective of UFO history (from Agobard of Lyons to the newly appointed US investigation agency UAPTF), intertwined with events in US and world history concerning military and civilian intelligence agencies and the cult of secrecy. It is now 679 pages and more than 555,000 words (including a substantial “Sources and Further Reading” appendix). 

Readers will discover or rediscover many events, people, and UFO cases they may not be familiar with. Some will find it useful for current or planned research projects. Military cases, those involving commercial aircraft, close encounters involving physical traces and other evidence, reports involving occupants or entities, and events surrounding military and sensitive nuclear sites are emphasized, but this timeline covers the full spectrum of UFO history, from contactee experiences to misidentifications of mundane phenomena and notorious hoaxes. Links to online sources are given, and links to biographical information are provided when available. 

A timeline like this allows us to view events from a different perspective, letting us make connections we might not otherwise see. It forces us to view the big picture, amid the grand flow of UFO cases, military security decisions, a vast swathe of personalities, and world history. 

Eberhart's timeline is hosted as a 679-page  PDF at the NICAP or CUFOS sites:

UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline by George M. Eberhart (NICAP)

UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline by George M. Eberhart (CUFOS)

George Eberhart's timeline is a great  resource, and we're proud to see The Saucers That Time Forgot included among the many sources. We understand that George will be periodically revising the timeline, so this will be worth following for the additions and updates.

Speaking of Updates...

The work of Louis Taylor at Information Dispersal was the subject of our July, 16, 2020 posting, Ufology: Information Dispersal - Documents and Photos. Louis has kindly shared other historical documents and photographs for recent and forthcoming articles. He also provided a few rare items pertaining to some of our previous articles. The following six have been updated with:

An extremely rare flyer from the film distributor to UK theaters on the exhibition of The Flying Saucer Mystery has been added to: The First UFO Documentary: The Flying Saucer Mystery

An original UPI photo of the airframe and artist's conception of the: Princeton University's Flying Saucers for the US Army.

An original UP photo of witnesses John Black and John Van Allen from an early saucer contact case has been added to: Flying Saucer Ambush: Brush Creek, CA, 1953.

A flying saucer model photo from the 1959 National Models Exhibition in London: UFO Exploitation: Targeting Children.

The flying saucer and Martians of the UK's the Royal Air Force Maintenance Command for: UFOs: Real True Hoaxes of Advertising.

An original Buhl Planetarium flyer for the program "The Mystery of the Flying Saucers" has been added to:Astronomer Arthur L. Draper on The UFO Mystery

Thanks again to both George Eberhart and Louis Taylor for their work in preserving and sharing UFO history.

Ufology: Information Dispersal - Documents and Photos

Louis Taylor recently left a series of interesting comments on The Saucers That Time Forgot, and it prompted us to check his Blogger profile which links to his Pinterest page. It’s called "Information Dispersal," where Luis hosts an interesting collection of various UFO correspondence, documents, and photos, mostly from the 1960s. The correspondence covers letters between ufologists such as Steve McNallen, Tom Adams, Anthony Kimery, Ed Biebel, John Keel, Bill Moore and others.

When we contacted him, Louis told us a little about his UFO projects:

"I've been working on a couple of books and doing research into all manner of details concerning the phenomenon including those you've covered on your blog. Been looking into the concurrent evolution of the anti-communist right and UFOlogy in the 20th century as well as the GOC (Ground Observer Corps) and other things like accumulating sighting catalogs of UFOs around transmitters as well as ringing hull cases."

Louis has been building an archive of vintage material from various sources, including items offered for sale on eBay. Unfortunately, many of these come without any data about their date or origin. 

At his page, Louis has a collection of photos labelled, “Orphaned UFO Images,” and asks: “Have you seen me? I was created many years ago but I don't know by whom. Any information as to the true source of the following images would be greatly appreciated.”

I asked him if we could share some of his UFO pictures at STTF.

“That would certainly be fine by me.  The whole point of posting them is to try and get any information that might be available that might further identify them.”

Louis also shared a collection of images, some of which will be used in later articles. There’s some press material from the 1967 direct to television movie, Mars Need Women. 

We found info on this movie still from "Flying Saucer," it’s from an English dubbed version of the Italian film, "Il Disco Volante."

The last photo is the most mysterious, a 1947 photo shot from a plane with what looks like a snowy mounting in the background, and above it a flying spherical object.

The photo is a print used for an unknown newspaper’s story, and on the back is a pasted a clipping of the published caption:

An object flying over Mount McKinley in Alaska which three Fairbanks girls believed to be a “flying disk” was recorded on film by the trio during a Fourth of July vacation flight near the mountain. The girls, Margaret Hawk, Mary Lou Hawkes, and Julie Harris, say they had focused their camera on the peak when a “bright red mass” went flying through space leaving a gaseous trail. What they saw is shown in this picture to the right of the peak's crest. The “disk” was visible only a second, they said, and then disappeared into the mist.

 [stamped] JUL 15, 1947

Louis Taylor notes the print had been retouched, a common practice to sharpen details for newsprint publication.  He said: 

“From the look of it it actually looks like a frame from a home movie or something.  It's obviously been retouched but what is it, a Perseid meteor or something else?”

So far, we have been unable to find the published version. This is an outstanding find, and would be in the running with the Frank Ryman picture for the first UFO photo of the flying saucer era.

 STTF readers are urged to check out Louis Taylor’s gallery of documents at Information Dispersal. If you have any information on any of the photos, please post in the comments below or send Louis an email.