ZR-1 Shenandoah Christening Invitation

This single-item collection consists of an invitation to the christening of the US Navy airship ZR-1 USS Shenandoah at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey, on October 10, 1923.

Plans for the construction of the US Navy airship ZR-1 USS Shenandoah, the first rigid airship to be built in the United States, were begun in September 1919; her parts were manufactured at the Naval Aircraft Factory and then shipped to NAS Lakehurst for final assembly. The assembly began on February 11, 1922, and the Shenandoah was christened on October 10, 1923. Despite her relatively short life of two years, the Shenandoah achieved many firsts during her operational career. She was the first rigid airship to be inflated with helium; the first to use water recovery apparatus for the continuous recovery of ballast from the exhaust gas of fuel burned; and she completed the most extended operation accomplished by an airship up to that time, completing 57 flights, logging 740 hours in the air, and covering about 28,000 miles on flights designed to train crewmen in the science of handling large airships in naval missions. Sadly, the airship was to meet a tragic end. Before dawn on the morning of September 3, 1925, over eastern Ohio, the Shenandoah encountered a severe storm. She broke in two; the control car separated and fell to the ground while the forward section of the ship rose to a great height and remained in the air for the greater part of an hour before making a free balloon landing at Sharon, Ohio, with the bulk of the airship crashing near Ava, Ohio. Fourteen of the 43-person crew were killed.