Mercury Seven Fully Signed Photograph and Orville Wright Signed 1926 Pilot’s License
From Kitty Hawk to the Moon—two generations of American flight pioneers, pairing a 1926 pilot’s license signed by Orville Wright with a photograph signed by all seven original Mercury astronauts
Two aviation pieces spanning the pioneering age of powered flight and the dawn of American human spaceflight, pairing an early pilot’s license signed by Orville Wright with a photograph signed by all seven of NASA’s original Mercury astronauts. Issued in 1926, just 23 years after the Wright brothers’ first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, the license bears the signature of the man who helped inaugurate the aviation age; the Mercury Seven photograph, signed by the astronauts selected in 1959 to lead America’s first human spaceflight program, represents the next great advance in flight little more than three decades later. The items are as follows:
Pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale / National Aeronautic Association of U.S.A., measuring 5.75 x 4 open, Certificate No. 6522, issued to Ray W. McClenaghan, and dated September 1, 1926, signed below by Orville Wright as chairman of the contest committee. McClenaghan’s photograph and signature are on the adjacent page.
Vintage matte-finish 10 x 8 photo of the original Mercury Seven astronauts gathered around a model spacecraft, signed in the lower border in ink by all seven: “Virgil I. Grissom,” “Alan B. Shepard, Jr.,” “Walter M. Schirra, Jr.,” “M. Scott Carpenter,” “Donald K. Slayton,” “John H. Glenn, Jr.,” and “Leroy G. Cooper, Jr.” An inscription in the upper right reads, “Regards to Suzanne & Marilyn – The Astronauts.”
Archivally cloth-matted and framed together with a photo of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk to an overall size of 20.5 x 34. In overall very good to fine condition, with scattered toning and some stains to the pilot's license; the photograph bears scattered creasing, and a small mark to the lower left.
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From Kitty Hawk to the Moon—two generations of American flight pioneers, pairing a 1926 pilot’s license signed by Orville Wright with a photograph signed by all seven original Mercury astronauts
Two aviation pieces spanning the pioneering age of powered flight and the dawn of American human spaceflight, pairing an early pilot’s license signed by Orville Wright with a photograph signed by all seven of NASA’s original Mercury astronauts. Issued in 1926, just 23 years after the Wright brothers’ first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, the license bears the signature of the man who helped inaugurate the aviation age; the Mercury Seven photograph, signed by the astronauts selected in 1959 to lead America’s first human spaceflight program, represents the next great advance in flight little more than three decades later. The items are as follows:
Pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale / National Aeronautic Association of U.S.A., measuring 5.75 x 4 open, Certificate No. 6522, issued to Ray W. McClenaghan, and dated September 1, 1926, signed below by Orville Wright as chairman of the contest committee. McClenaghan’s photograph and signature are on the adjacent page.
Vintage matte-finish 10 x 8 photo of the original Mercury Seven astronauts gathered around a model spacecraft, signed in the lower border in ink by all seven: “Virgil I. Grissom,” “Alan B. Shepard, Jr.,” “Walter M. Schirra, Jr.,” “M. Scott Carpenter,” “Donald K. Slayton,” “John H. Glenn, Jr.,” and “Leroy G. Cooper, Jr.” An inscription in the upper right reads, “Regards to Suzanne & Marilyn – The Astronauts.”
Archivally cloth-matted and framed together with a photo of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk to an overall size of 20.5 x 34. In overall very good to fine condition, with scattered toning and some stains to the pilot's license; the photograph bears scattered creasing, and a small mark to the lower left.
Estimate
Time, Location
Auction House
