Description:

SAMUEL P. LANGLEY
(1834 - 1906) American aviation pioneer who explored the possibility of flight by heavier-than-air machines and actually succeeded in inventing such a machine which flew over the Potomac for 3,000 feet. A.L.S. 2pp. 8vo., Washington, June 5, 1888, on Smithsonian Institute letterhead. A social letter to the wife of Otho Michaelis, a Captain in the US Army Signal Corps who was attached to Langley''s 1881 expedition to Mount Whitney. In part: "...Don''t think I am forgetful of you, or of Otho, or of Frank, or of any of yours...I love your children and want to see them, and if I could have got two days from Boston for my own enjoyment should have spent them at Kennebec Arsenal. But I am summoned back here by telegram...to go where no one can get at me, that is on the ocean. I expect to sail on the 30th to La Bretagne, to go to Paris, to turn round and come back...to New York..." Light offsetting to margins, overall very good condition.

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April 18, 2018 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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