SIGNED BY SEVEN PIONEERS OF MANNED FLIGHT: MILLER’S EXTENSIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC TRIBUTE TO AVIATION

MILLER, Francis Trevelyan. The World in the Air: The Story of Flying in Pictures. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1930. Two volumes. Tall quarto, original three-quarter white parchment, black paper spine labels, Japanese paper boards and endpapers, uncut and unopened, Volume II with original glassine. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

Autograph limited first edition, number 73 of only 500 copies, an unopened copy signed by Miller and seven pioneers of aviation from France, the United States, Great Britain and Germany—Farman, Bleriot, Curtiss, Brown, Scott, Eckener and Dornier—illustrated with over 1200 photogravures of historic images selected by Francis Trevelyan Miller.

Magnificent photographic tribute to the pioneers of flight and the history of aeronautical development, illustrated with over 1200 rich brown-tone photogravures of historical events, key innovators, and early inventions. Following upon his successful photographic documentation of the Civil War, historian Francis Trevelyan Miller began writing collectors, photographers, government agencies and historical societies, asking for images that illustrate the history of aeronautics. These requests led to this comprehensive collection of official prints and photographs from government archives and private collections, together with Miller's historical text. This copy of the special autograph first edition contains the signatures of Henri Farman, who made the first flight to measure over one kilometer; Louis Bleriot, who flew the first airplane across the English Channel; Glenn Curtiss, who designed the first aircraft to take off and land on the deck of a ship at sea; Arthur Whitten Brown, co-commander of the first nonstop airplane flight across the Atlantic; G. Herbert Scott, commander of the first trans-Atlantic voyage in an airship; Hugo Eckener, pilot of the Graf Zeppelin, the first airship to fly around the world; and Claude Dornier, designer and builder of some of the world's earliest all-metal aircraft. Also signed by the author and the publisher. Issued simultaneously with a trade edition. Without glassine for Volume I. Bookplate of noted collector Bella C. Landauer, whose collection of aeronautical sheet music is now housed in the Smithsonian.

A bit of wear to glassine and slipcase, books bright and fine. An exceptional copy.