Oct 15, 2015 - Sale 2393

Sale 2393 - Lot 55

Unsold
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(AVIATION)
A dramatic album featuring 288 photographs related to early aviation. Depicted in the album are scenes of the famed Roosevelt and Curtiss fields at Mineola, New York. The photographs show engineers and pilots tending to their aircraft, including Victor Carlstrom in his "New York Times" Curtiss biplane, planes in flight silhouetted against the cloudy sky, scenes of overturned aircraft and multiple wreckages post crash-landing, various aerial photographs, portraits of the actress Pearl White posing in and around a biplane, and images of former President Teddy Roosevelt at the renaming of the airfield in 1919. Silver prints, each approximately 5 1/2x3 1/4 inches (14x8.3 cm.), and slightly smaller, with 7 measuring approximately 6 1/2x5 inches (16.5x12.7 cm.), mounted recto/verso 4 per side to black paper pages (the 7 larger 2 per side), each with a number in white pencil. Oblong folio with ties, black leatherette. Circa 1917-19

Additional Details

Roosevelt Field was the origin of Charles Lindbergh's famous solo transatlantic flight of 1927. It was also commonly utilized by early aviators such as Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post. During World War I the airfield was used as a training and testing field for the Air Service of the United States Army. It was renamed in 1919 to commemorate President Theodore Roosevelt's son who was killed in air combat during the war.