?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(AVIATION.) Scott Price. Eyewitness account of the famous Alaskan plane wreck which killed Will Rogers--with an artifact and photo. Typed Letter Signed, 2 pages on 2 sheets, 10½ x 8 inches, on Office of Indian Affairs letterhead, to nephew Seymour; mailing folds, minor wear. With original stamped envelope postmarked "Barrow, Alaska" and inscribed "Air Mail," worn with tape repairs. Point Barrow, AK, 2 September 1935
In 1935, the famed aviator Wiley Post planned a trip to Alaska to explore a possible air mail route to Russia. His close friend, the even more famous humorist Will Rogers, asked if he could accompany him in hopes of picking up some interesting frontier stories for his newspaper column. Their plane crashed not far south of Point Barrow, the northernmost point in Alaska, killing both men instantly.
Here, an American government official writes to his nephew: "Distances are far here and transportation is very very slow, and you might be interested in knowing that your letter was brought to Point Barrow on the plane in which Post and Rogers were killed. They picked up a handful of mail addressed to Point Barrow at Fairbanks, the office having forwarded it to me after it arrived in Anchorage. The plane crashed 15 miles south of here, and when they went to get the bodies they found the mail sack, and the letter was brought to Barrow by Eskimos in one of their skin boats. I was out to the plane crash yesterday, and took some pictures and also some souvenirs, and am enclosing a piece of the plane cloth and a photograph of one of the men here, took soon after the crack-up. I know that you will appreciate this. The piece of plane cloth will be the first part of the plane to reach the United States, for the plane itself will soon be frozen in, and since I'm going out on the last boat to leave this part of the world for another year, you will see that there is little likelihood of another part getting outside. I also have Will Rogers' fishing pole, which is made of bamboo, but is all broken. I have his coat, and a few other odds and ends from the plane."
The letter writer Herman Scott Price (1893-1965) worked in the field service of the Department of the Interior's Office of Indian Affairs. The letter also discusses the remoteness of "the most northern settlement on the American continent," and particularly the elaborate transportation which will be required to bring Price and this letter back to the Lower 48.
With--a 3 x 3½-inch photograph of the wrecked plane, captioned in pencil on verso "Wreckage of Post & Rogers accident Aug 16 1935."
and--an irregular swatch of red coated canvas, captioned on verso "Taken from the Post-Rogers plane, Walakpai [Walakpa] Creek, 15 miles south of Pt Barrow, crash occurred Aug 16 35, taken by H.S. Price."
and--a hand-colored full-length photograph of a man in field gear with an owl on his shoulder, 9½ x 5¾ inches, captioned on verso in ink "Scott Price" in a later hand. This is not the photo of "one of the men here" mentioned in the letter--it would not fit in the letter's envelope.
