Sep 28, 2017 - Sale 2455

Sale 2455 - Lot 45

Price Realized: $ 875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(AVIATION.) Signed photo of aviator Frank Goldsborough. Photograph, 7 x 9 3/4 inches; closed incision and small perforation in image area, other light wear; faint stamp on verso. Np, [1930]

Additional Details

For every aviator who gained enduring fame in the early days of flight, probably ten more died in the attempt. Frank H. Goldsborough (1910-1930) was born in Washington D.C. and raised in New York City. His father was an aviator who died in a crash in 1927. Frank followed in his footsteps and piloted the biplane American Boy to the junior transcontinental speed record in May 1930, and gained a degree of national celebrity through a series of New York Times columns in which he described his exploits. Two months later, he crashed his plane in Vermont and died of his injuries the following day. This photo, signed "Best Regards, Frank H. Goldsborough, American Boy," was produced by the New York Times's own photo service, Wide World Photos, and thus dates from the very brief period of Goldsborough's fame.