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Document 3508

FRANCES GRAYSON
Lost at sea trying to become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Exceedingly Rare Photograph signed: "Frances Grayson". B/w, 8x10. Also penned on the photograph, possibly by the photographer: "Photo by/Ed. N. Jackson/1927". Penciled note on verso in unidentified hand: "Hello Jack/Kindly have this/pix autographed for me". On Friday, December 23, 1927, seven months after Lindbergh's first solo transatlantic flight from Roosevelt Field, Mrs. Frances Wilson Grayson, a 35-ish Forest Hills, N.Y. real estate broker, took off in the Dawn, a Sikorsky amphibian aircraft, in her fourth attempt to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic. From the front page of the Saturday, December 24, 1927 issue of "The New York Times": "A heavy twin-motored amphibian lumbered down from the mound at the east end of the runway on Roosevelt Field at dusk yesterday afternoon, roared along the runway for 2,500 feet and then climbed into the air. A minute later it was over Curtiss Field, barely visible in the gathering darkness. Then it turned into the northeast. The Dawn was off on the 1,200-mile flight in the night to Harbor Grace, Newfoundland...Oskar Omdal, Lieutenant in the Norwegian Navy, who flew in the Norge with Amundsen from Spitzbergen to Alaska over the North Pole, was at the controls. Brice Goldsborough, instrument expert, veteran navy radio operator and navigator, is the third person in the plane who will attempt the ocean flight from Newfoundland. Fred Koehler, Wright Aeronautical Company motor expert, was also in the plane to watch the performance of the two Wright Whirlwind motors. He will stay in Newfoundland until the plane takes off but will not accompany the expedition across the ocean...." The two-column front page headline in the Sunday, December 25th issue of "The New York Times": "NO WORD FROM MRS. GRAYSON; PLANE 29 HOURS OVERDUE; AIR SEARCH STARTS TODAY". The six-column banner headline, Monday, December 26th: "GRAYSON PLANE RADIOED 'SOMETHING WRONG' FRIDAY NIGHT/THEN THE SIGNALING CEASED, SILENT FOR 54 HOURS SINCE;/PROBABLY OFF THE NOVA SCOTIA COAST IN A STORM". Rescue planes and the airship Los Angeles, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Rosendahl, searched for the missing plane. It was hoped that if it was forced down it would ride the seas since it could land and take off on land or water. There was another six-column banner headline the next day, Tuesday, December 27th, and a smaller page one article on Wednesday, December 28th, followed by shorter articles inside succeeding newspapers. The Dawn never made it to Newfoundland. It disappeared and nothing was ever heard of the crew again. Six months later, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to cross the Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Wales, June 17-18, 1928. This is the first autograph of Frances Grayson we have seen in over 30 years of collecting. Creased, paper clip impression at upper left background. White defects from original negative reproduced at corners.

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