Abby Whitlock remembers watching the various holiday specials of the Peanuts — in particular, she recalls “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” featuring Snoopy battling the Red Baron.

“I was really interested in why there was a beagle in a flying costume and why he was sitting on a dog house,” Whitlock said with a laugh.

At an early age, she started learning more about aviation. Her cousin had just gotten out of the Marine Corps as a pilot, and her mom Cindy Whitlock bought her a set of children’s books on biographies of different pilots. They included Amelia Earhart, the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane: Charles Lindbergh, famous for his solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris: Chuck Yeager, the first pilot confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight, and Manfred von Richthofen, also known as The Red Baron, a German fighter pilot during World War I credited with 80 air combat casualties.

“I remember reading that entire book [on The Red Baron] in one day because I was so fascinated by it,” Whitlock said.” I just became obsessed from there.”

Whitlock’s obsession has turned into a professional career. She has worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. since 2019, and currently serves as the digital initiatives coordinator in the digital content strategy and experience division. In October, she will be the first woman to present a seminar at the Great War Aviation Society in England about a person she is quite familiar with — The Red Baron.

While Whitlock blames her mom for an early love of history, her passion only grew with her time spent at the Louisa Historical Society (LHS) and Louisa County High School (LCHS). Living in a rural town, Whitlock noted it was hard to get experience without going to bigger cities like Richmond or Charlottesville, especially since she knew that she wanted to work in the museum field in some capacity.

From June 2013 to August 2018, Whitlock served in a variety of roles at LHS, including six months as an intern and also as a docent and archival assistant for two stints totaling almost five years.

“What was great about working at the historical society was that it’s such a small hometown institution that you really get to do a bit of everything,” Whitlock said. “I was helping with genealogy appointment requests, research requests, helping organize the archive and doing research in some of the materials there. I was giving tours and providing historical context to the region from the Civil and Revolutionary War era — that really helped me try and figure out what I wanted to do in museums and really fostered my love for speaking to people about history.”

While at LHS, she looked into the 1950’s era of Louisa County to see what life was like in rural Virginia during the height of the Civil Rights movement. She transcribed oral histories, digging into The Central Virginian and other newspapers from Richmond and Charlottesville to better understand the context of that era. It’s where she first started her world war research and dug into the Louisa connections in both global conflicts.

At LCHS, Whitlock acknowledged history teachers Thomas Trovato and Stacy Carr for their involvement in her love of history.

“They really supported me and my love for history and didn’t try to deter me in any way from pursuing history in museums as a career,” Whitlock said. “They were always supportive and talked to me about my interests and what I wanted to do in college and I’m very grateful for the two of them.”

Carr is in her 28th year of teaching. Whitlock was a student in Carr’s class for two years, first as a freshman and then as a junior in AP United States History (APUSH).

“Very early, I knew Abby was different in terms of her passion for history, like very few students I’ve seen — she was all things World War I, but she most definitely gravitated toward aviation and knew all about The Red Baron,” Carr said, recalling a presentation from a freshman Whitlock on trench warfare, who the next year insisted on giving that that same presentation to Carr’s incoming freshman students. “I’m so glad she is using her talents and letting people know about her knowledge of World War I and I’m incredibly proud of her.”

Whitlock was a 2015 LCHS graduate. After high school, she attended William & Mary where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History and European Studies and later received her masters from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

The Great War Aviation Society has been established for over 50 years with over 1,000 members across more than 25 countries. They are registered as a charity dedicated to researching and preserving World War I aviation history. The society publishes a quarterly journal, “Cross & Cockade International”, and a quarterly newsletter, “Wind in the Wires,” bringing together enthusiasts, historians, and researchers who have a shared knowledge and love of their respective niche. In October, Whitlock will be the first woman to present and share her research with a seminar on The Red Baron.

“He’s become this very integral person to our memory of first world war aviation,” Whitlock said, noting his prominence with battling Snoopy in Peanuts comics, as well as being featured on the “Red Baron Pizza” box.

But people outside of the field don’t know that in July, 1917, The Red Baron was shot in the head during a fight with an observer aircraft that caused temporary blindness and disorientation, Whitlock said. There is debate in the historical community if that head injury directly or indirectly led to his death in April that next year when he was fatally shot through the chest and torso during a dogfight.

Whitlock argues that his prior head injury may have messed with his judgement and caused him to be less of a top fighter than he had previously been. She has talked with experts in the medical field and their research with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) on football players who have experienced similar symptoms of cognitive decline and memory loss due to repeated head injuries.

Looking at the Red Baron’s case, she will be examining how a head injury could have impaired his judgment to provide a new look at his later death. After her presentation, the research will then be published in a special issue of the “Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health,” a peer reviewed journal published by the Australasian Military Medicine Association.

“It means a lot to me to have this opportunity…it’s a very hard discipline to get a foothold into since it’s so male-dominated,” Whitlock said. “It means the world to me to not only be surrounded by like-minded people, but to be invited to be that person to bring forward the next generation and crack the door open for other women that want to talk about first world war aviation.”

Both of Whitlock’s parents, Cindy and Greg, detailed her fascination with history when she was as young as five years old.

“Whenever we took Abby and her brother William anywhere, it was an educational type of trip like museums, historical homes…,” Cindy said, who was a history major in college before switching to education. “But Abby has always had a fascination with history. I guess it’s kind of genetic… if you gave her a tidbit of information, she was going to dig even further to find out more about it.”

Whitlock’s parents, grandparents, and great grandparents all came from Louisa, and military service in her family is long-storied. One of her grandfathers was in the army during World War II and landed on D-Day, while her other grandfather was in the army during the Korea campaign. Several of her uncles also served in Vietnam and a cousin served in the Afghanistan conflicts.

Her parents noted that their daughter had to make a name for herself in a male-dominated field.

“A young girl from little Louisa County, Virginia is [becoming the first woman to speak at the Great War Aviation Society],” Cindy said. “It speaks a lot to the Louisa County schools now…what this school system has turned into and the support from teachers like Carr who were always there for her.”

To travel and see the world is something Greg and Cindy encourage all people, but especially young people, to do in their life. The two are currently planning a trip to England in October to check out the sites, conveniently lining up as an opportunity to tag along and see their daughter present.

“It’s such a golden opportunity for her. We wanted to be there to let her know she has our full support,” Cindy said. “It’s a proud moment for the Whitlock family.”

At the National Gallery of Art, Whitlock’s division handles gallery installations in the exhibits, social media and website content, artwork imaging, 3-D photography, audiovisual operations, while assisting the chief digital officer as their advisor. But Louisa remains a special place in her heart, where her family has their roots and where her love of history first started developing her into who she is today.

“Louisa has always been a very supportive environment, even when I was in high school,” Whitlock said. “The teachers that I had in Louisa were always so supportive of every student they worked with, however ‘pie in the sky’ or attainable the goal they had was, they treated all of the students with respect and pushed them toward their dreams. I’m very thankful to my parents as well for being very supportive to both me and my brother. They wanted us to be happy and love what we do in life…Louisa is very tight knit and supportive and I miss it, [currently] living in a big city.”