[Archive]: Early Aviation Scrapbooks

Hardcover. Very Good. A group of three early aviation scrapbooks. The main book measuring 16" x 12", the others measuring 11½" x 8½" and 10½" x 7¼". All three volumes black cloth over stiff paper boards. Lightly worn bindings, the contents with scattered small tears, overall in very good condition. Includes 33 original photographs, accompanying hundreds of articles, meticulously pasted onto the pages of the books.

The main book begins in early 1929. It includes many newspaper clippings documenting the life and career of Charles Lindbergh following his successful trip from New York to Paris, the first solo transatlantic flight and the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles. The flight, completed in his highly-modified Ryan M-2 mailplane, won Lindbergh the $25,000 Orteig Prize, and instantly made him one of the most famous men in the world. Many of the early stories focus on "Lindy's" relationship with his wife, Anne Morrow, with articles about their engagement, wedding, personal life, Anne learning to fly, their record-setting transcontinental trip, etc. The book then shifts its focus to Lindbergh's commentary and contributions in the advancement of new aircraft, with some articles dating to late 1928. A few articles tell about Lindbergh's trips over South America, one titled "Linbergh Finds Long Lost Cities: With His Bride in His Plane, Explores Jungle and Desert; Helping the Archaeologists." The section concludes with a few articles about the birth of the Lindberghs' first son (who twenty months later was kidnapped and killed), followed by a few laid-in newspaper pages featuring articles about Lindy.

After a few blank pages, the scrapbook picks back up with articles about the development of giant passenger planes, designed to carry 100 people or more, most focusing on the development of the Dornier Do-X, a massive twelve-engined airliner designed in Germany by Claude Dornier. Numerous articles profile women pilots such as Claire May Fahy, Mrs. Keith Miller, Marvel Crosson, Marjorie Crawford, Lady Mary Heath, and others. Other articles focus on aerial photography; airmail; air speed records; air shows; crashes; gliders; seventeen original photographs "taken while on my trip to the ‘National Aeronautical Exposition' in Cleveland, Ohio on Saturday Aug. 31, 1929 by way of the Ford-Stout Air Line."; an original photograph of Captain Frank Hawks, holder of the transcontinental speed record, along with numerous articles about him. The latest articles date to the mid-1930's.

Accompanying the main scrapbook is another containing mostly clippings from what seems to be an airplane and dirigible identification book focused on military airplanes from countries around the world including Russia, Germany, England, Italy, France, and Austria. The majority of the clippings include a photograph and a line of text describing the image. Also includes detailed diagrams of airplanes. Most of these planes dates from the teens and early twenties. The smallest of the three scrapbooks focuses on "American Aeroplanes [from] 1917-1918". This book also includes clippings of images of planes as well as diagrams and charts.

An interesting look into the important years following Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight, a time of innovation and pop-culture excitement. A direct link to the source material that was informing and astonishing the American people of the time.