Admiral Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition 1933-1935

[Puyallup Lee]

I was given a fabulous photograph collection to sell on ebay, that belonged to a Naval Aerial Photographer from the 1930's. There are many early Naval aircraft in the collection which I will share in a future post.

This collection is so nice that I decided to not sell it, instead I have put up a web site to share all the photographs with everyone.

Also included in the collection is thirty some photographs from Antarctia. One of this gentlemen's Naval photography instructors was the official Naval photographer with Admiral Byrd.

I have not been able to find most of these photographs on the internet. All of the photographs are right clickable.

This photograph was taken at Little America. Admiral Byrd (on the left) and his team are looking at a map of Antarctia.



Much of Admiral Byrd's aircraft were donated for the expedition. I tend to think that the donations were for advertising purposes.

The Pep boys (I think their names were Manny, Moe, and Jack) donated a Kellett Autogyro. The photograph below shows the autogyro with a tarp over it.

One of Admiral Byrd's ships was "The Bear of Oakland" and here is a photograph of the mast head.

I hope you enjoy these photographs,

Lee

 

[BellyTank]

Firstly Lee, welcome to the FL.
Secondly, thanks for showing these rare and precious images.

What is the URL for viewing the collection of images..?


Thanks-

B
T

 

[Puyallup Lee]

Hi BT

Here is the link to go directly to the gallery that has the Admiral Byrd Photographs.

If anyone wants higher resolution copies, I can make them available.

Lee

 

[Creeping Past]

Thanks, Puyallup Lee. Wonderful images. Well done for making them widely available.

Have you considered offering these images in some form to a national/international collection? If they're not already archived, they'd be a valuable resource for researchers in many areas, not to mention the general public, and I'm sure that a museum or archive would be keen to acquire them or retain them in safe-keeping on loan from you.

 

[Fletch]

What a fantastic resource. I'm really going to enjoy looking thru all of Mr. Doughty's work. Every discovery like this helps rescue the pre-WW2 era from the historical irrelevance it's slipping into today.

BTW, if it is you who is webmaster at the collection site: I think I've identified the mystery airship hangar you asked about in the Lighter-than-Air section.

It's the Goodyear Zeppelin Hangar in Akron, now known as the Airdock.

 

[Puyallup Lee]

Hi Creeping Past,

When Admiral Byrd passed away, all of his collection, consisting of letters, manuscripts, pictures etc. was donated to the Ohio State University. I am sure they have all the pictures that I have. The university is in the process of scanning their photographs and putting them on the internet. The big difference between their pictures and my pictures are that they are puttin low resolution pictures on the internet and my pictures are high resolution.

This is very understandable, because one source of income for a Library or Museum is to sell high resolution copies of their photographs. This money is then used to help purchase items to increase their collection.

At some future date, when Ohio State has all their pictures scanned, I will compare them with my collection and if there are any in my collection that they do not have, I will then donate them to their collection.

If you would like to copy my pictures to your computer, for your enjoyment, please be my guest. I do not approve of them being used for commercial purposes without my conscent.

If there are any educational institutions that would like higher resolution, let me know. Many of the photographs will print nicely in an 8 x 10 format. In fact a couple of the pictures are in an 11 x 14 format and I had one heck of a time getting them scanned in. I had to scan two pictures then try to blend them together.

I just looked at the photos on my web site and they seem a little wahsed out on my monitor. If they look a little wahsed out to you, let me know and I will darken them up a little.

I hope everyone enjoys this little bit of History.

Lee

 

[Puyallup Lee]

Hi Fetch,

Indeed I am the webmaster. I think you nailed it. Thany you very much.

I am going to start a new thread highlighting the aircraft. Actually I haven't figured out how to do a link from the gallery back to the home page and I have so much neat information there.

Just as a for instance, a Golden era aviation historian, sent me the history cards and maintenance cards for the aircraft I could identify. These cards lists the date and assignment for the life of the aircraft. The maintenance cards lists what had to be repaired after each accident. This is great historical information.

I love history. I have been researching my family for the last 50 years, started when I was 16) and I know how inportant history is and how wrong the history books can be. :rage: I guess a little of it rubbed off, my daughter was a history and english major in undergraduate school. She is now finishing up her second year of law school at the University of Washington. We are so proud of her!

Be on the lookout for my Golden Era Aircraft thread and my Rickenbacker Car thread.

Lee

 

[Story]

Lee,
You really should do up an article for Smithsonian magazine or somesuch.

I'm digging the fork-tailed goatee (third fella from the Admiral)

 

[Fletch]

Whadya bet those wool shirts came from L.L.Bean?

Update: Googleskim suggests Byrd's teams were outfitted by Abercrombie & Fitch, and in 1939, by Woolrich Mills.