Beschreibung:

Lot of 170+ real photo postcards and silver gelatin photographs related to early aviation, primarily the work of aviation pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss (1878-1930), founder of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. The lot features a folio Scrap Book containing 70+ real photo postcards, dating from 1908-1915, many copyrighted by H.M. Benner of Hammondsport, NY, Curtiss' hometown, plus six 4 x 6 in. silver gelatin photographs, some identified either in the negative or in ink below the image. The scrap book includes photos of the following: Curtiss winning the Scientific American Trophy, 1908; Professor Samuel Langley's Flying Machine, which was invented in 1903, but was sent to Curtiss by the Smithsonian in 1914 to be modified and tested in an attempt to determine whether Langley or the Wright Brothers had invented the first machine capable of sustained flight; the Curtiss Flying Boat; early Curtiss test flights over land and water; a snow plane; a portrait of Glenn Curtiss and Henry Ford with a Curtiss Flying Boat; images of barnstormers such as Lincoln Beachey and Baxter Adams; aviation pioneer Claude Grahame-White carrying passengers; and Walter Brookins' wreck at Belmont Park, New York; plus many other images. The collection also includes 15 mounted and 50+ unmounted silver gelatin photographs, ranging in size from 2.5 x 4 in. to 7.75 x 9.5 in., plus 20+ loose-leaf real photo postcards, many duplicates of those mounted in scrap book. A highlight of the collection is a silver gelatin photograph described on verso as Aviator Glenn H. Curtiss landing at Cedar Point opposite Sandusky O. 1 hr. 19 min. after leaving Euclid Beach Cleveland O. Aug. 31, 1910, with additional details about the machine's 60 H.P. 8 cyl. V type water-cooled ignition by Bosch magnets and the Biplane type - single surface plane, 8 x 9.5 in., mounted, 11 x 14 in., plus a smaller copy of the same photograph. Also included in the group is a photograph of Aviator Mass going up at Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Centennial Oct. 10-15 1910, featuring a Curtiss plane, as indicated on verso, 4.5 x 6.5 in., mounted, 8 x 9.5 in.; two silver gelatin photographs of a model of the Curtiss Flying Boat on display, 6 x 8 in., mounted, 9.5 x 11.5 in.; two photographs of the Trans Atlantic Flying Boat, designed by both Curtiss and English naval captain John Cyril Porte, who poses next to the flying boat in one image, 4 x 6.5 in.; some great shots of Curtiss with his colleagues modifying and attempting to fly Langley's Flying Machine in Hammondsport, off Lake Keuka. The individuals pictured are identified as E.A. Kelly, John L. Callan, H.R. Kidney, Charles M. Manly, Dr. Walcott, and Dr. Albert Zahm, the witness for the flights sent by the Smithsonian; plus several other photographs and photo postcards of trials involving Curtiss' inventions, his colleagues and exhibition pilots, and shots of Hammondsport, NY. The lot also includes copy of Aeronautics, Vol. XIII, No. 3, September, 1913, which features an advertisement for the Book of the Curtiss Flying Boat, and a booklet about the Curtiss Flying Boat. At a young age, Glenn Curtiss developed an interest in bicycles, like other aviation pioneers such as the Wright Brothers. In the early 1900s, he started a business designing, building, and repairing bicycles. Eventually, he started adding motors to the bicycles, therefore converting them to motorcycles. He even began racing them. As a result of Curtiss' accomplishments with building and racing motorcycles, balloonist Thomas Scott Baldwin asked him to power his airship, the California Arrow, with a Curtiss engine. Baldwin also motivated Curtiss to become more involved with aviation. In 1906, he offered to sell the Wright Brothers one of his engines, but they declined. The following year, Curtiss joined the Aerial Experiment Association, or AEA, which was founded by Alexander Graham Bell He made great strides in aircraft experimentation while working with Bell and other members of the