Spectacular Map Illustrating Lindbergh’s Flights, in a Superb Example with the Original Envelop

CLEGG, Ernest. [New York, 1928]

World/ Aviation History/ Pictorial. CLEGG, Ernest  [John Day Company, New York: 1928] Map Showing the Overland and Overseas Flights of Charles A. Lindbergh. 27 ½  x 47 ¼  inches. Nine-stone lithograph.  Folding map with very slight fold wear, with original envelop with minor wear & a small piece torn away; overall an excellent example of the map with brilliant color.                                                                                                                                   
A magnificent, richly decorative map illustrating Lindbergh’s most important flights.  The size and grandeur of this nine-stone lithographed work reflect the adulation accorded Lindbergh at the time.  The map places him in the company of Columbus and Magellan, which would not have been seen as an exaggeration.  It highlights, of course, his epic transatlantic flight from New York across the Atlantic from Roosevelt Field Long Island to Paris in a The Spirit of St. Louis on May 20^th and 21^st of 1927.  The map has an index and text for the following additional flights by Lindbergh: first flight; flight after receiving pilot’s wings; as air mail pilot; from San Diego, St. Louis to New York; National Tour; Mexico, Central and South America and the West Indies; and Canadian flights.

The map abounds in decorative flourishes that recall those found on Dutch maps of the 17^th century.  It has several elaborate cartouches, the most prominent being one with an American eagle and portrait of Lindbergh, along with biographical information.  Illustrated in this work are U.S. Cruiser Memphis Bringing Captain Lindbergh Home, Columbus’ Ship the Santa Maria, and Ferdinand Magellan’s Ship.

In the spring of 1927, a number of pilots and airplane designers aspired to be the first to cross the Atlantic from New York to Paris nonstop, spurred on by ambition and the $25,000 Orteig prize offered by a New York businessman. It was a dangerous undertaking and other crews had disappeared or crashed to their deaths in the attempt. The 25-year-old Lindbergh’s rivals were more seasoned and experienced than he, including Commander Richard E. Byrd, a Navy aviator and renowned polar explorer. The competitors gathered at the airfield on Long Island in mid May and waited for the right weather conditions. The impending event captured the public imagination, and crowds showed up each day hoping to see the start of an historic event. Lindbergh took off on May 20, and after 33 hours in the air — flying solo, without sleeping, and coping with adverse weather conditions — he touched down at an airfield outside Paris. The event transformed the hitherto obscure airmail pilot into an international celebrity and hero. Although Lindbergh’s distance record was broken only a few weeks later by another pilot who made it to Berlin, it was Lindbergh who captured the popular imagination.  In addition to the Orteig Prize, he received the Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military decoration. Lindbergh went on to become an advocate for commercial aviation, a prize-winning author, international explorer, inventor and conservationist.

Ernest Clegg (1876- after 1947) was a cartographer, painter, designer and illustrator. Born in England, he studied at the Birmingham School of Art, later moving to New York City. During World War I he had witnessed firsthand the Battle of Jutland, which he commemorated in a painting about 20 years later, as reported in a 1937 article in Time. Clegg also drew upon his World War I experience to illustrate a limited-edition publication of John McCrae’s famous poem In Flanders Field (1921), reissued in an expanded edition by Nabu Press in 2010.

Clegg is probably best known for his pictorial maps that combined precise illustrations with historical facts and accuracy. His most renowned is the one offered here, published as a wall map on rollers or folding, as here.  His other pictorial maps include the Ticonderoga Colonial battlefields, Washington, D.C. and environs (for the bicentenary of George Washington), a chart of the site for the America’s Cup Yacht Races of 1934, and a series of county maps of Great Britain published by The Countryman (1945-47).

Allen, C.B. and Lauren D. Lyman. The Wonder Book of the Air. Chicago and Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1939. 112-124; “Art: Jutland on Canvas.” Originally in Time, February 8, 193;. Online at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883586,00.html (19 November 2010); Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1985. p. 118.

Price: $2,750.00