The Genesis of Flight : the Aeronautical History Collection of Colonel Richard Gimbel

Gimbel, Richard

ISBN 10: 0295978112 / ISBN 13: 9780295978116

Published by [Seattle, Wash. ] : Friends of the United States Air Force Academy Library in Association With the University of Washington Press, 2000

About this Item

The Genesis of Flight illustrates one of the most prestigious aeronautical history collections in existence, covering the history of man's dream of flight from antiquity to the advent of powered flight at the beginning of the 20th century. The items included are drawn from more than 20,000 objects that vividly reflect both humanity's vision and its fulfillment. Five-thousand-year-old seals carved from semiprecious stones and used to inscribe clay tablets record the earliest conception of flight. Among the collection's thousands of books are priceless volumes printed before 1501. Many, such as Robert Hooke's Philosophical Collections (1682) , are serious, scientific studies of the possibility of flight. Others are about imaginary voyages into space and to other worlds, including Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1547) , Cyrano de Bergerac's account of a voyage to the moon first published in 1650, and, of course, the 19th-century classics of Jules Verne. More than 2,000 prints, portraits, engravings, etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs comprise a unique and arresting pictorial history of aeronautics. Important letters written by pioneers of flight -- Montgolfier, Blanchard, Lunardi, Lilienthal, Count von Zeppelin, Santos-Dumont, Langley, and the Wright brothers -- are to be found among the collection's manuscript holdings. There are also rare commemorative medallions, sheet music, posters, dime novels, postcards and postage stamps, early flight manuals, catalogues of aircraft equipment, match boxes, and children's games and toys -- all recording, in one way or another, humanity's aspirations to fly. The collection was assembled by Richard Gimbel (1898-1970) , who began collecting whileserving with the 8th U. S. Army Air Force in England during World War II, and continued after becoming curator of aeronautical literature at Yale University. The collection was donated to the United States Air Force Academy upon his death. An exceptional copy; fine in an equally fine dw. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Literally as new; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 372 pages; Description: xi, 372 p. : ill. (some col. ) ; 32 cm. + 1 computer disc (4 3/4 in. ). Includes bibliographical references (p. 361-362) and index. Subjects: Gimbel, Richard --Library --Catalogs. United States Air Force Academy. Aeronautics --Bibliography 4 Kg.

Seller Inventory # 159740

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Genesis of Flight : the Aeronautical History Collection of Colonel Richard Gimbel
• Publisher: [Seattle, Wash. ] : Friends of the United States Air Force Academy Library in Association With the University of Washington Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0295978112
• ISBN 13: 9780295978116
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Weight: 4 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

Displays the 20,000 item collection of Colonel Richard Gimbel on the history of flight. After retiring from the U.S. Air Force, Gimbel became Curator of Aeronautical Literature at Yale where he continued building his collection, eventually donated to the US Air Force Academy in 1970. Five thousand year-old seals carved from semi-precious stones and used to inscribe clay tablets record some of the earliest known instances of the dream of flight. Of thousands of books, some date from the 15th century, some are scientific like Robert Hooke's Philosophical Collections (1682), and others are about imaginary voyages into space and other worlds, including Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1547), Cyrano de Bergerac's account of a voyage to the moon (1651), and the 19th-century classics of Jules Verne. There also some 2,000 prints, portraits, woodcuts, and lithographs, and letters and hundreds of commemorative medallions, sheet music, posters, dime novels, postcards, postage stamps, early flight manuals, catalog of aircraft equipment, match boxes, and children's games and toys. Oversize: 9x12<">. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Reviews

As a scion of the family that developed the famous department store that bears its name, the late Richard Gimbel was able to be a distinguished book collector as well as a colonel in the air force reserve. The scope of his collection proves more impressive than the size and price of this lavish showcase of its highlights. Here are 5,000-year-old Sumerian seals depicting flying men, sheet music from the early-twentieth-century days of powered flight ("Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine" is just the best known), and examples of just about every other kind of printed artifact in between. Reproduction and commentary are of the highest quality, and the latter commendably lacks the condescending technophobia that has disfigured the notes of other recent aviation-art books. Expect accredited and amateur aviation historians, art historians, popular-culture mavens, and lovers of fine bookmaking all to pore over this handsome publication. Roland Green
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