Description:
Designed for a child's delight or for an adult's admiration, The Flight of Charles A Lindberg from New York to Paris in his monoplane "The Spirit of St. Louis" - on May 20-21, 1927 is a colorful, artist drawn map of Lindbergh's historic solo aviation journey of 3,610 miles over 33.5 hours from New York to Paris. 1/ The story is told in pictures. The map's border illustrations are to be read clockwise, starting from the lower left map corner medallion "Preparations". Each corner medallion contains a directional arrow to direct our reading of the imagery that frames the map and which panel by panel explains each step of Lindberg's journey. The artist includes a frame showing Lindberg's feline mascot named Patsy who sees him off. Imagery of "The Flight" complement the artist's depiction on the map of Lindberg's course across the United States, across the Atlantic Ocean to France and next to England.
Stylistically the art work shows art deco influences. The largest illustrated emblem is placed top row center on the sheet titled "SCIENCE" on a red scroll. The emblem shows in plan view Lindbergh's plane and its control panel. On either side of the SCIENCE emblem are individual emblems each with an image of the hardships Lindbergh encountered in flight - Distance, Fog, Snow, Sleet, Darkness and Solitude as he crossed the choppy waves of the Atlantic Ocean. The artist illustratesf Lindbergh in his plane coming in for a safe landing at Le Bourget Field in France. A scene shows Lindbergh being feted in Paris where the American flag is displayed.The next panel shows Lindberg being honored in Brussels with dignitaries standing on a balcony draped with a large American flag. Finally, we see Lindberg in his plane flying to London, with the British Union Jack in the foreground as he comes in for another landing.
The pictorial story of Lindberg's hero's welcome in America is shown along the bottom pictorial margin titled "The Return". Lindberg sailed on the U.S.S. Memphis Navy cruiser on his return to the United States, and the artist presents the cruiser with, its American flag and banners flapping in the breeze. The bottom pictorial panels center the image of Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Capitol building where Lindbergh visited with and was decorated with a medal by the President. The final vignette on the map portrays Broadway, New York City where Lindbergh is greeted by wall to wall celebrants and a popular hero's welcome.
The map itself is pictorial and its imagery somewhat whimsical. The compass rose shows a highly stylized eagle posed within a red circle. The scale of miles has a wave pattern below the scale bar, reminding us that much of the travel was over water. A supersized image of the United States anchors the left side of the map.Lindbergh's flight path is drawn from takeoff to landing. The Atlantic Ocean is decorated with sailing vessels from the 15th to the 20th centures, honoring perhaps the first transatlantic journey from Spain to North America by galleon and the map's celebrated first transatlantic flight back to Europe.
The artist has drawn way points on the map from New York north along Canada's coast and then east across the Atlantic to Ireland where we can read the clocked time at which Lindbergh passes each location. In fact, Lindbergh arrived ahead of schedule over France at 5 p.m. and landed in Paris at 5:21 P.M. to cheering crowds.
The map was published along with an artist designed wrapper that decorates the cardboard mailing tube that completes the set. This example of the map was found rolled up in unused condition in its tube and the decorated mailing tube is also unused. Artist Amy Drevenstedt drew a "mailing label" on the tube's wrapper for a person to address the package as a complete work of art. What a wonderful gift this is.
Note:
1. This day in history: Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis make first solo transatlantic flight - Space Center Houston