Original Photo Album of Aviator Wilhelm Heinrich Evers
Extraordinary and extensive original photo album compiled by and documenting the career of aviation pioneer Wilhelm Heinrich Evers (1884-1960).
Very good plus overall.
Price: $11,000.00
Original Photo Album of Aviator Wilhelm Heinrich Evers
Evers was among the first wave of intrepid pilots to take to the skies following the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight. Active in both Germany and the United States, Evers's Fédération Aéronautique Internationale license number was 190, and he was a member of the Early Birds of Aviation (founded in 1928, limited only to the first 600 or so pilots who flew prior to December 16th, 1916). Within the first decade of flight, Evers not only designed, built, and flew his own planes in Germany, but was a pilot for the first commercial airline in the United States (The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line, 1913). Later, he would help develop some of the first high altitude aircraft (for Fokker Aircraft and others), held a number of aviation patents, and was among the main designers of the Junkers Ju 88 — one of the most important German fighters of the Second World War.
Most of these portions of his career are documented in this album with more than 350 original photographs. The album spans about 1910 through 1929 and covers his earliest flights in Germany (1910-1911); his foundational work with Thomas W. Benoist on the world's first passenger airline in Tampa, Florida (1913-1914); his work with Fokker in the 1920s, and more. The first approximately 85 photographs document different iterations of Evers's early German flyers of his own design, designated E-I through E-VI and dated 1910-1913. The album then moves to Evers's close work with early aviators Tony Janus and Thomas W. Benoist in St. Louis, Missouri, including another about 85 photographs focusing on Benoist's St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, for which Evers was one of three original pilots. Roughly the final half of the album provides a highly technical glimpse into his work, largely in New Jersey with the Fokker Aircraft Corporation on various projects — including its failed F-32.
The photos are almost without exception well-shot and -framed, and in many instances beautiful and almost poetic. A rare, rich, and exceptionally early collection of aviation photography, generously annotated, and providing a valuable primary window into the earliest years of flight in both Germany and the United States from an important aviation trailblazer. Worthy of further study.
The Object
[Various]: n.p, (circa 1909-1929). 10'' x 13'' (x 2''). Commercial album; black textured strong-tied leather over flexible stiff card wrappers. 80 black paper leaves with approximately 367 black-and-white photographs (all but a few gelatin silver prints) mounted to rectos and versos in dry corner mounts, 3 additional prints laid-in. Prints frequently annotated in white album pen in both English and German; some photos additionally annotated on versos. About 40 prints apparently perished. Mild handling wear and rubbing to album exterior, most pronounced at corners and edges of leather. Album about very good, contents near fine.
The Fine Print
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