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Official program issued by The Aeronautic Society in conjunction with the Federation of American Motorcyclists for the "Aeronautic Society Exhibition and Tournament and Championship Motorcycle Races" held at the Morris Park Aerodrome, New York, on November 3, 1908.
The Aeronautic Society was founded in New York in July 1908 to promote interest in and support the development of aeronautics by assisting its members in carrying out experiments, encouraging investors, bringing together people working in related aeronautical fields, and providing facilities where experimenters could carry on their work. A committee immediately set to work to find a suitable location for these activities, eventually settling on a defunct racecourse just north of New York City. Morris Park Racecourse had operated as a fashionable horse racing facility beginning in 1889 but closed in 1904 due to lack of attendance. In September 1908 The Aeronautic Society leased the property from the City of New York for two years for use as the Morris Park Aerodrome. The Society wasted no time in organizing its first public event, to be held at their new Aerodrome on Election Day of the same year, November 3, 1908. They joined with the Federation of American Motorcyclists to present the "Aeronautic Society Exhibition and Tournament and Championship Motorcycle Races," interspersing aeronautic events with motorcycle races over the course of the day. The air show was a rousing success with the public, with over 20,000 people filling the stands and the infield. The Aeronautic Society (later known as The Aeronautical Society of America) secured a second location for use as a flying ground at Mineola, Long Island, New York, in January 1910; in April 1910 a fire damaged much of the Morris Park Aerodrome facility. The property was eventually sold to developers and the land subdivided into building lots. Morris Park was originally part of Westchester County, New York, but later became part of The Bronx, the northernmost of the five boroughs which make up New York City. The Aeronautical Society appears to have disbanded in 1918 at the end of World War I.
NASM.XXXX.0956
November 3, 1908
Smithsonian Institution Libraries, transfer, 2010, NASM.XXXX.0956
0.05 Cubic feet (1 folder)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
Additional information on The Aeronautics Society (later known as The Aeronautical Society of America) and the 1908 Morris Park event can be found in the William J. Hammer Collection, NASM.XXXX.0074, https://sova.si.edu/record/nasm.xxxx.0074: Series 1: Professional Materials, 1.1 Correspondence, Box 1, Folder 8: Correspondence, Hammer and the Aeronautical Society, November 1908 - July 1933. https://sova.si.edu/record/nasm.xxxx.0074/ref58 Series 1: Professional Materials, 1.7 Leaflets, Box 3, Folder 17: Leaflets and handbooks, The Aeronautical Society, 1911-1920. https://sova.si.edu/record/nasm.xxxx.0074/ref111 A cleaner copy (NASM 00139297) of the 1908 Morris Park event program can be found in the Hammer collection in Series 1: Professional Materials, 1.6: Programs, Aeronautic Society Exhibition and Tournament and Championship Motorcycle Races. https://sova.si.edu/record/nasm.xxxx.0074/ref835 NOTE: NASM 00139297 (NASM-2A39297) includes the back cover of the program featuring an advertisement for N.S.U. Motorcycles; in the case of NASM-9A20341 the back cover is obscured by the library binding and is not visible.
This collection consists of an official program, bound in a hard-cover library binding, issued by The Aeronautic Society in conjunction with the Federation of American Motorcyclists for the "Aeronautic Society Exhibition and Tournament and Championship Motorcycle Races" held at the Morris Park Aerodrome (formerly the Morris Park Racetrack), Westchester, New York, on November 3, 1908. The front cover features a reproduction of the front cover of the September 1908 edition of Aeronautics magazine showing the US Army "Signal Corps No.1" (SC-1) (Baldwin) airship in flight during US Army trials at Fort Myer, Virginia, in August 1908. Interior pages include a list of events (alternating aeronautic activities and motorcycle races) and information about The Aeronautic Society.
Single item catalogued as NASM Archives item number NASM-9A20341. Digital scans are presented in page number order.
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1908 Aeronautic Society Exhibition and Tournament and Championship Motorcycle Races Program, NASM.XXXX.0956, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics -- 1903-1916
Aeronautics -- Competitions
Motorcycles
Collection descriptions
Archival materials