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The Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), Inc. Air-Rail Service Scrapbooks collection consists of three large, fabric covered scrapbooks. The set documents the pre- and post-inaugural activities of TAT for the period of time between June and November, 1929.
The Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) was the first U.S. airline associated with railroads (Pennsylvania and Santa Fe) to provide a rapid form of coast-to-coast transportation. Daniel M. Sheaffer, chairman of the executive committee of TAT, was a pioneer in the development of commercial aviation for passenger and express mail services. Both he and founder Clement Melville Keys were instrumental in the development of the TAT line and with the inauguration of the service.
NASM.XXXX.0081
1929
Pennsylvania Railroad, Gift, unknown, XXXX-0081, NASM
1.59 Cubic feet (3 flat boxes)
National Air and Space Museum Archives
This collection includes three scrapbooks. The news clippings in Volume I cover the period of July 6-10, 1929, when the first transcontinental air-rail service was inaugurated. Volume II, covering the period of June 11 through August 23, 1929, documents the pre- and post-inaugural activities surrounding the establishment of the TAT. Both volumes contain newsprint with images of high-profile travelers and stakeholders, such as Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Ina Claire, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford. The third volume (untitled) covers the time between September 4 and November 1, 1929, when the news of the TAT Ford Tri-Motor "City of San Francisco" disappearing in the mountains of New Mexico captivated readers nationwide.
This collection is in orginal order, with each scrapbook compiled in chronological order.
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Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), Inc. Air-Rail Service Scrapbooks, Acc. XXXX.0081, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Aeronautics
Railroad travel
Air travel
Aeronautics, Commercial -- United States
Aeronautics, Commercial
Aeronautics, Commercial -- Passenger traffic
Ford Tri-Motor Family
Curtiss Condor Family
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Clippings
Scrapbooks