Beschreibung:

AVIATION] CURTISS, GLENN & POST, AUGUSTUS. An archive of vintage photographs, picture postcards signed by Curtiss, a typescript portion of The Curtiss Aviation Book, and other ephemera . New York, Reims, France and other locations: circa 1900-1915. A remarkable group of aeronautic items from the papers of Augustus Post, the first secretary of the Aero Club of America. The archive comprises approximately 175 vintage photographs depicting all manner of bicycling, motorcycling, dirigibles and early airplanes. Many photographs depict Glenn Curtiss and other early aviators racing, flying, displaying machinery, etc. Includes images of Curtiss' 1908 flight in June Bug in Hammondsport, N.Y. Sizes vary, largest 7 1/2 x 10 inches (19.5 x 25 cm); smallest 1 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches (4.5 x 7 cm). Correspondence items include 3 picture postcards signed by Curtiss and sent from France during the seminal 1909 Grande Semaine d'Aviation (including one in which he writes "About 40 aeroplanes here ... cup looks way off"); 3 other cards sent from the event ("Curtiss is making fine speed and has a good chance for the Bennett cup. Latham has just passed the stand - 150 feet in the air"); 2 picture postcards (signed over both cards by Curtiss) sent from California in February 1913 where the naval plane experiments were held; a 1911 typed letter signed from Curtiss to Post ("The flying boat is beginning to look like something..."); four typed letters from secretaries on Curtis Exhibition Co. stationery, including one regarding re-writing The Curtiss Aviation Book; a 1908 five-page manuscript account signed by Post regarding Orville Wright's flight at Fort Myer; four typed postcards from aviator Wiley Post in 1910; a 1911 signed picture postcard depicting McCurdy's Silver Dart in 1909; 2 penciled manuscripts possibly in the hand of balloonist James McCoy; a typed note signed from F.N. Doubleday; a 1908 letter to Post from inventor Edward H. Young with manuscript drawing of his "Gyropter"; a typescript (most likely by Post) titled The Dirigble vs. the Aeroplane; and 12 typescript chapters of the 1912 Curtiss/Post collaboration The Curtiss Aviation Book. Ephemera includes 4 early American Aeronatic Association pins listing G. Myers as president; 2 checks signed by Augustus Post; a group of covers imprinted The New York Times Aeroplane Race New York. A well preserved group overall with some handling wear and short tears, the photographs removed from an album with some residue and creasing, paper items with some wear from paperclips and folds, the postcards lightly edgeworn. Highlighting the rapid developments of aviation this archive is remarkable for its group of images of Glenn Curtiss as both cyclist and aviator. The postcards signed by Curtiss and sent from the seminal 1909 Grande Semaine d'Aviation are quite scarce. Post, as secretary of the Aero Club of America had a unique vantage point in which to collect these historical artifacts. C