Airships: Collectables - 3

 

Airships: Collectables - 2

Another of my 'collectables' is a signed reproduction of a famous airship painting by Stan Stokes. My copy is 12" x 15" and has a certificate stating mine is number 153 of 4750 printed.

The painting shows the Hindenburg soaring over New York harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

The title is "Fateful Voyage".

Airships: Collectables

Over the years, along with collecting my library of books relating to lighter-than-air ships, I've also collected a few other items of interest on the same topic. In my collection I have a few airship posters, a couple of tin toys, a coat/hat pin, and my most treasured item: an actual piece of mail postmarked on the Hindenburg during her first commercial flight. Well, it's actually just the envelope. The letter was from a Mr. Frederich Nichol of New York, to Mr. Karl Hummel of Berlin. The New York post mark is May 11, 1936, and it was stamped in Berlin a few days later on the 14th.

The envelope has a very large rubber stamp mark on the front showing the Lakehurst, Hindenburg, Trans-Atlantic, and First Flight. On the back there is a German stamp mark showing the Hindenburg again, and the words: Mit Luftschiff, Hindenburg Befordert.

Airships: The Library

Wanting to know more about airships, I began my research at the local library. While I did find some material there, it really wasn't very extensive. So, I began checking out local bookstores, new and used. It wasn't long before I had started my own collection of airship books. From time to time I'll be sharing my personal library here in this blog. One of the books to come across my path a few years ago, is a small (8" x 9"), hardbound copy of 'The Blimp Book'. It was published in 1977 by Squarebooks of Mill Valley, California. It documents the four Goodyear blimps: America, Columbia, Mayflower, and Europa. It is chuck full of great photos, mostly color, of the blimps, their crews, and some of their travels. There's even a chapter on how the blimps work and a bit of technical information too. Some of the aerial photos taken from the blimps are just spectacular.

Airships: The Begining

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

I think the title of my blog makes it pretty clear that what I plan on sharing here is my interest and fascination with lighter-than-air (LTA) flying machines.

It all began many years ago when my family and I were on vacation down on Cape Cod. Early one evening, as we were enjoying an after dinner ice cream, we heard a strange humming sound coming from somewhere above us. It wasn't too long before we could finally see the nature of the beast making all the noise, a Goodyear blimp! It was floating along at about 200 feet above us; the whole side lit up with thousands of little white lights. We watched it sail along for several minutes until it disappeared behind the trees.

Well, that was it. I was hooked! I wanted to know all there was to know about blimps. At that point I had no idea as to what I was getting myself into. But, it has been, and continues to be, a wonderful and enjoyable adventure ever since.