41 1/4x26 1/4 inches, 104 3/4x66 1/2 cm. Schmidt Lithograph Co., San Francisco. Condition B+: repaired tears at edges, some into lower text; repaired tear in upper right image; minor abrasions at edges.
The United States Navy ordered its first airplanes on May 8th, 1911, a day that is considered to be the beginning of U.S. Naval Aviation. Most of their earliest planes were Curtiss Flying Boats, and the aircraft depicted here appears to be a Curtiss HS-2L, a single engine version of the larger, twin-engine H-16. This rare depiction of early U.S. military aviation is infused with the kind of glamor and romance that bespeaks a world at peace, leading us to date the poster from the years after World War I. Its scarcity can be explained by the fact that it was printed in California, and likely was not distributed nationally. Rawls p. 256.
