Photographs from the Papers of J. Hartley Bowen, Jr.

J. (Joseph) Hartley Bowen, Jr. was born in New Jersey in 1914 and graduated from Drexel University in 1938. Bowen served as the Supervisory Chemist at the Naval Air Material Center’s Aeronautical Materials Laboratory.

The Aeronautical Materials Laboratory was one of several specialty laboratories established during World War II at the Naval Aircraft Factory (NAF) adjacent to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. The laboratory specialized in the research, development, and testing of various materials, including metals, plastics, paints, textiles, and rubber, to ensure compatibility with the specific needs of naval aircraft and their shipboard components. As naval aviation expanded in proportion and complexity, the Aeronautical Materials Laboratory was grouped with several other specialty laboratories to form the Naval Air Experimental Station (NAES); in turn, the NAES combined with the NAF and the Air Station at Mustin Field to form the Naval Air Material Center (NAMC) in 1943. Following World War II, research and production of naval aircraft and component parts at the NAMC continued and the facility was again rebranded as the Naval Air Engineering Center (NAEC) in 1962. The Air Station at Mustin Field subsequently closed in 1963 and some of the NAEC’s research laboratories relocated to Johnsville, Pennsylvania throughout the 1960s. The remainder of the Naval Air Engineering Center ultimately relocated to Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1973.