This propeller is from Eugene Ely's Curtiss Model D pusher biplane that he flew as part of the U.S. Navy's early investigations into the military uses of aviation. On November 14, 1910, Ely made the first take-off from a ship, the cruiser USS Birmingham, in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Three months later, Ely made the first landing on a ship, the battleship USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay, on January 18, 1911, while using the first ever tailhook system. Ely died later on October 19, 1911, after crashing during an exhibition flight in Macon, Georgia.

At the time of the propeller's donation in 1931, Ely's father, Col. Nathan Dana Ely, described it as being from the Hampton Roads take-off flight and in the condition as received from his son. Ely's Model D came so close to the water that the propeller tips hit the crest of a wave causing them to splinter, which can be seen today. Subsequent information from a family acquaintance interviewing Ely's wife in the late 1950s suggested that the Hampton Roads propeller was kept by a benefactor and that the propeller held by the Smithsonian was likely from the San Francisco landing flight.