Snow Shoes, Lockheed Sirius "Tingmissartoq", Lindbergh

Charles A. Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, flew in their Lockheed Sirius aircraft on two significant missions, one in 1931 and the other in 1933. In 1931 the Lindberghs flew to the Orient, proving the viability of traveling from the West to the Far East via the great circle route to the North. In 1933 they flew survey flights across the North and South Atlantic to gather information for planning commercial air routes. During their trans-Atlantic trip a Greenland Eskimo boy gave their airplane its name, Tingmissartoq-"One who flies like a big bird."The Lindberghs were meticulous in their preparations for the two trans-global flights. They utilized every possible space of the aircraft to carry supplies. The objects in this collection represent the mission support and personal items they carried and illustrate the essential equipment that would have been taken on international exploratory flights during the 1920s and 1930s.When packing for their flights the Lindberghs had to consider every possible emergency: an unexpected landing on ice, at sea, in the desert, or in the tropics. Accordingly, they packed a sled and snow shoes, as well as pith helmets and mosquito head nets. This was an odd collection, but the Lindberghs were traveling through some of the coldest climates, such as the Greenland Ice Cap, into some of the hottest, such as the Amazon River Basin. If they had to make an emergency landing over Greenland or Alaska, snow shoes would have helped them walk to the nearest outpost much more quickly. This pair belonged to Charles, and Annne had her own, slighty smaller pair as well.Upon returning from their trans-Atlantic trip in late 1933, the Lindberghs donated the Tingmissartoq and the material support items to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The collection was displayed in the Hall of Ocean Life until 1955, when it was sent to the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. After deciding that Lindbergh artifacts did not really represent the Air Force, the Air Force Museum transferred the collection to the Smithsonian Institution's Air Museum in 1959.