Souvenir Pennant for the 1910 Harvard - Boston Aero Meet
Triangular red wool felt with ties. The pennant depicts Boston Light, two bi-planes and a monoplane, printing “Harvard / Boston Aero Meet 1910, A second souvenir pennant for the next year’s event has sewn letters “Aero-Meet” and depicts a biplane and prints “Boston/ August 26th to Sept. 4th 1911.” Both are in excellent condition. The 1910 show was America’s second major air show, and the first to feature competition. There were prizes for various records, the most important being the 33 mile round trip between the field at Squantum, on Boston Harbor, and Boston Light. It is illustrative of how quickly aircraft technology was progressing to note that it was only two years earlier that Glenn Curtiss became the first American to officially fly more than one kilometer. Another competition featuring the bombing of a dummy warship with plaster bombs was watched by a future President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and others. An English pilot won, followed by the Wright Brothers team. President Taft and his family also attended much of the show. The following year’s show featured Thomas Sopwith and Earle Ovington, America’s first airmail pilot. The following year’s show was the final one; Harriet Quimby, the first American female licensed pilot, and her passenger, one of the show organizers, fell to their deaths from a demonstration flight.
[Book #36263P]
Price: $1,500.00