The first card in the listing is rather special. It is a superb card showing a close-up view of a very determined Mr. Curtiss looking intently at the camera.  While scanning the card to include in this presentation, I read the card, and was amazed to see that it had been written and signed by Glenn Curtiss.

I believe the card was printed in France, from a photo taken at Rheims, and sent by him from Brescia in Northern Italy, where he flew in the Concour Internationale d’Aviation in 1909.

He had just left the international air meet in Rheims in France where he won the prestigious speed contest-- two circuits around a 10 kilometer course , beating Frenchman Louis Bleriot, who was a national hero for his recent crossing of the English Channel. Winning this event changed Curtiss from the odd American who had brought an aeroplane that had never flown, an engine that had only been run on a test stand, a spare propeller, and little else; into an international superstar. Even the French loved him. His every word was recorded by the press.  When he won the speed contest in Italy, hundreds of thousands came to see him fly.

The card was sent by Curtiss to Chas (Charles?) Wheeler.

Monroe Wheeler was a Hammondsport lawyer and director of the Hammondsport Bank, who backed young Curtiss and later became his corporation legal counsel, director on the board, and president of the Herring-Curtiss Co.

I have not been able to find a relationship between Monroe and Chas. Many thanks to the people at the Glenn Curtiss Museum for their enthusastic aid in researching this relationship.

POSTCARDS
Grande Semaine D'avaition de Champagne
G. H. Curtiss, World's Record Mile, 26 3/5 sec.
Curtiss Flying his Airship
Motor Ice Boating, Lake Keuka, N.Y.
"Red Wing" First American Public Flight, March 12, 1908
Aeroplane "June Bug" , G. H. Curtiss and Aerial Experts
G. H. Curtiss Winning Scientific American Trophy
Drome No. 4 McCurdy's "Silver Dart" Boddack, NS
Glenn Curtiss at Home, Hammondsport , N.Y.
Curtiss Flying Boat at Hammondsport N.Y. 1913
Transatlantic Flyer "America"

LINKS
Glenn Curtiss Biography
Glenn Curtiss Biography
Glenn Curtiss Museum Website
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