I was intrigued by this studio staged photo postcard.  I wanted to know more.  I decided to start with where it was created, the Kregel Photo Parlors.  It turns out that Clayton Kregel had multiple locations where people went to have photographs taken.  His studios were in operation, both in Minneapolis and St. Paul, from around 1900 to 1917.  Using these dates and information I already knew about William and Rachel, I suspect this picture was taken around 1911-12 at one of the St. Paul locations, either on E. 7^th Street or Wabasha Avenue.  Kregel offered a 10-minute photographic postcard service.   

Onto the actual picture itself, was there any reason for the balloon-like setting used in the photograph?  At first glance it appears that they are in the “basket” of a hot air balloon, but then when I looked at the balloon, it wasn’t the shape of any balloon I picture when I think of one.  I had to entertain the thought that maybe this isn’t a hot air balloon that is being represented.  So what is it?  Well, hot air balloons, Zeppelins, dirigibles and blimps are all examples of airships so I Googled “airship 1910s” and to my surprise, the following picture showed up in the results.

It turns out that in 1910 the airship America made the first attempt in history to cross the Atlantic Ocean by air.  The airship was designed and flown by Walter Wellman and Melvin Vaniman.  It was 228 feet long and 52 feet in diameter.  The long structure underneath was referred to as a “car,” whereas on a hot air balloon there are baskets.  The car on the America is the long structure at the base of the balloon.  The shorter part hanging at the very bottom is a lifeboat. 

Wellman and Vaniman, along with a crew of six, left Atlantic City, New Jersey on October 15, 1910. Both the flight and the airship were abandoned after 71-1/2 hours and 1008 miles into the flight.  The crew boarded the lifeboat, where they had already spent most of the flight time, and upon its detaching from the airship, the airship rapidly rose, floated away, and was never seen again.  The crew, along with its mascot, Kiddo the cat, was rescued by a passing steamship.

The America was front-page news in both the United States and Europe, with people being captivated by the possibility of being able to just float across the ocean.  William and Rachel did not take a real flight, but they at least could imagine what it was like to fly.  However, based on accounts written about the flight of the America, the casual manner portrayed in their picture was in stark contrast with the reality of what the crew of the America really experienced.  The flight may have failed, but the public was gripped by the stories of advances in flight.

The actual first successful air crossing of the Atlantic, done by the U. S. Navy’s NC-4, would not occur until 1919 and the first nonstop transatlantic flight happened on May 21, 1927, when Charles A. Lindbergh flew his Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France.

The above postcard is additional proof of the public’s ongoing fascination with aviation.  The photo would have been taken by an itinerant photographer who traveled the area with the prop plane.  He would have set up the plane, posed the clients, taken the picture, and while the customer waited, developed and printed the postcard. 

Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cindy

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