Boys dressed like their hero, Lucky Lindy, after his daring trans-Atlantic solo flight
This charming snapshot portrait from my personal collection shows three generations of a family standing before the limestone wall of a home, presumably that of the elderly woman seen on the right.
Her attention seems to have been drawn away at the moment of the exposure, and her diverted gaze makes this photo more interesting to me. But the man with his cocked hat, scarf, and long wool coat, and the young boy in the Lindbergh attire are both fully engaged with the photographer.
It’s a small silver gelatin snapshot, just 2.25-inches wide by 4-inches tall, badly curled and stained with spots and dirt on the surface.
Charles Lindbergh became a national hero after his groundbreaking solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927. His daring achievement captured the imagination of all Americans, but especially with young boys, who began emulating their hero by wearing faux-leather aviator caps, with eye goggles and chin straps. This craze helps us date this photo to sometime between 1927 and the early 1930s.
Beginning in 1932, Lindbergh and his wife endured a tragic three-year ordeal with the the kidnapping and death of their son, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., just 20 months old.
But Lindbergh’s luster became permanently tarnished years later with his vocal admiration for Nazi Germany and his outspoken anti-Semitism.
