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Akron. Massive oversize photograph of t

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:750.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,250.00 USD
Akron. Massive oversize photograph of t
Akron. Massive oversize photograph of the famous zeppelin as it emerges from its hanger, by famed woman photographer Margaret Bourke-White, with her stylized signature "Bourke-White" on medium grey ground at lower right. Set in original metal frame, its sections arranged in machine-age design joined by rivets. Size 201/2 x 26, set in 11/2" wide metal frame of the actual Duraluminum used in girder construction of this airship. Under period glass. Inlaid presentation plaque at lower center of frame: "Winner, R.G. Hall, Third Annual Goodyear Dealers Zeppelin Race, July-August 1931. This frame is made of Duralumin used in girder construction of the United States Airship Akron built by Goodyear Zeppelin Corp." The Akron, as the second of three rigid airships built for the U.S. Navy by Goodyear in Akron, Ohio, was designed to be the largest, fastest and strongest ever built. Its maiden flight was made in Sept. 1931. In April 1933 it was wrecked in a storm over the Atlantic with only three survivors, the wreckage not being found until over fifty years later. The photographer Bourke-White was the star photojournalist for Life magazine at the time. Her coverage of this event lent additional distinction to the race. In the 1920s and 1930s, zeppelin races were immensely popular. None other than Hugo Eckener, Commander of the Graf Zeppelin, would attend these races in Ohio in this period, to promote the future of these new birds of the sky as flying aircraft carriers and luxury long-distance passenger travel. Considerably dampstained in the past, with adhesion to the original glass at numerous spots, those few involving the live image itself being smaller than the others and much less conspicuous. Irregular outline of discoloration around each of the spots; glass cracked at lower left corner. Still dramatic, important, and very scarce, with much character. Estimated at less than half that of a fine example. Request more detailed condition report.