Description
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A signed photograph of Charles Lindbergh, taken on his triumphant return voyage from Paris to New York in 1927
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974), nicknamed Slim, Lucky Lindy and The Lone Eagle, was a pioneering aviator who began his illustrious career in the skies as an US Air Mail pilot.
At the age of just 25, he emerged from obscurity to capture the $25,000 Orteig Prize for his solo non-stop flight from New York to Paris on May 20-21, 1927.
The event rocketed him to international fame, and there was "tremendous public hysteria" in America. He was awarded the nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his legendary flight.
His fame meant that he was able to champion the development of commercial aviation and Air Mail services in the United States, making him one of the leading figures responsible for the progression of aviation technology at the time.
Following his son, Charles Jr, being kidnapped and murdered in the "Crime of the Century" in 1932 - a result of Lindbergh's fame - his family moved overseas. They returned as America joined the second world war, with Lindbergh flying numerous combat missions in the Pacific Theatre.
Following the second world war, Lindbergh styled himself as an explorer, inventor and prize-winning author, as well as an environmentalist - a truly remarkable man.
An absolutely superb signed photograph (By Underwood & Underwood of Washington DC) measuring 18cmx23cm, mounted to a total size of 28cmx38cm.
The sepia styled photo shows Lindbergh posing in front of the fuselage of the Spirit of St Louis. Lindbergh has signed underneath:
"To Mr Fred Buckholy, Charles A. Lindbergh" adding the date "June 12, 1927".
The photograph was therefore signed the day after Lindbergh's triumphant return home to the US aboard the USS Memphis when a fleet of warships, pursuit planes, bombers and the airship USS Los Angeles followed him up the Potomac River to the Washington Navy Yard where President Calvin Coolidge awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross.
It's therefore possible/probable that the photo was taken aboard the USS Memphis on June 11th and printed on the same day by Underwood and Underwood.
The day after signing this photo a ticker-tape parade was held for Lindbergh down 5th Avenue in NYC.
Within a year of Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis flight from NYC to Paris a quarter of all Americans had personally seen Lindbergh and the the Spirit of St Louis, pilot applications had tripled and the number of licensed aircraft had quadrupled.
By 1929 US air passenger numbers had increased from 5,782 to 173,405 a year.
Without doubt the best Lindbergh signed photo we have ever handled.
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