Original black-and-white press photograph of an airship from the US Navy observing surface activity at sea. Circa 1943. Back with restriction stamps and stamped ‘States-Item’. Green-painted wooden frame with double glazing. Visible size 17×21 cm. Frame size 27×32 cm.
THEME: AIRSHIPS
The airships of the 1920s and 1930s – the largest capable of crossing the Atlantic on regular routes, each with more than 70 beds reserved for the international upper-class clientele for whom they were created – were seen as symbols of modernity and progress with their gigantic aluminium skeletons, comfortable passenger cabins and exclusive restaurants, all made possible by the most talented engineers of the time, The German airships of the Hindenburg and Graf Zeppelin types are the most famous today, but the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Japan, France and Italy also developed their own variants – using helium and hydrogen as lifting gases, respectively – the latter being extremely flammable. On 6 May 1937, the German airship LZ-129 Hindenburg caught fire while attempting to dock at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in New Jersey on the American east coast. This disaster marked the end of the commercial use of airships as a means of transport.
This is an original black-and-white silver gelatin press photograph from circa 1943, which appears with four minor surface fractures/creases as well ads fine surface scratches. Furthermore, normal signs of age and wear.
Art Deco, 30 September 2025
Not sold