This envelope is among other documents celebrating the first scheduled transatlantic airmail delivery.  It was, of course, a Pan Am plane and my dad was able to get the signatures of the crew on an envelope addressed to my parents in Port Washington.

Note the circled items on the envelope (my circles).

Upper left is the first officer on the flight, Charles Lorber.  Center is parents’ address on Sagamore Hill Drive at the time.

Now, back to the Eric Sloane artwork:

The three names on the wings of those little planes were Pan Am pilots at the time.  One is “Lorber” whose signature is on the envelope.  His career with Pan Am was cut short in 1941 when he crashed a Sikorsky S-42 flying boat on landing.  Pilot error was ruled.

Capt. Sullivan’s career ended in a similar fashion when he crashed a Boeing 314 flying boat on landing in 1943.  That plane had a singer, Jane Froman, on board and her experiences became the subject of a movie in 1952 called “With a Song in my Heart”.

Capt. Gray went on to become CEO of Pan Am.

The road behind the hangars is labeled “Sagamore Hill Drive” which was the road my parents lived on at the time.

Their rented house was not far down the road to the left (not shown in the artwork).

The steel barrel float (made from empty oil barrels) is shown in the artwork.

Below is part of that float washed up on the dock after the 1938 hurricane that hit Long Island.

And finally, if you look on the right-hand side about midway up, just under the “Bell”, you see “Christensen”.

So now you know everything I know about this Eric Sloane artwork.  There are probably only about another hundred pieces of information that were incorporated into it.

This piece of history now hangs in Jennifer’s home in Tucson.