Author: [EPHEMERA], [WORLD WAR I] [AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY], [SCRAPBOOKS]
Title: World War I Scrapbook of a United States Aerial Photographer / Observer
Description: France: Self Published, 1918. Flexible covers. B&W Illustrations; World War I Scrapbook (13" x10" approx) with 48 pages from an instructor at the Second Aviation Instruction Center at Tours France, 1918. The scrapbook was the property of, and photographed by James F(Fred) Chappell, who is best known as one of the early photographers at the Lick Observatory, and for whom the Chappell Crater on the Moon is named. The scrapbook includes 48 pages of various sized photographs taken by Chappell, starting with photographs of shipboard activities on the transport from the US to Tours, France, candid photos of France and the French rural folk on their travel from the coast to Tours, and then to the compound of 2nd AIC (Second Aviation Instruction Center) which was founded by the French at the Tours Aerodrome and then given over for the use of the United States as a place for instructors in aerial observation and aerial gunnery to teach students. James F. Chappell became an instructor in Aerial Observation -- and ironically because the airplanes were crashing so often and had so many injuries and fatalities, Chappell and other instructors were forbidden from flying into combat, to keep from having excessive losses in the instructor corps. The latter half of the scrapbook includes many photographs of different styles of airplanes (both whole, and in pieces) , the ambulance crew, fire brigade, the camera guns, and aerial photographs and sundry accoutrement dealing with aerial photography, gunnery or observation. There are several rank advancement tickets, small souvenirs and occasional newspaper clippings associated with the school. Chappell graduated as one of the first classmen of the U. S. Army Aerial Photography class held at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. In all 278 photographs plus other ephemera regarding Chappell's tour of duty, starting from his transport in the US to the fields of Tours, France. This scrapbook holds an amazing amount of visual information regarding the early days of the Army Air Corps which became the United States Air Force in 1947.. Very Good .

Keywords: Aeronautics / Astronautics Aerial Photography Aerial Observation World War I Aerial Observation Instructor Tours, France 2nd AIC Early Aviation Aeronautics / Astronautics


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