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4 0 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yeach object collected and, often through exhibiting andwriting, relates objects to each other, all celebrated becausethey exist and because I have collected them forsome reason.As a historian, however, I place objects, details, andfacts into a larger framework, asking how each relates tothe historical process. In other words, I put the researchin context and interpret it. 1 I must answer what historianscall the “So what?” question, and I must develop a thesisthat presents a fresh perspective. Further, as a curator, Imust seek strong stories that touch visitors’ lives and makethe onsite and online experience engaging and rewarding.By reading the current literature in both fields—collecting and history—I am able to apply ideas fromother philatelists, paper collectors, and historians to myown work, even if their topics do not relate specificallyto my own focus, that being zeppelins, aerophilately, andthe juxtaposition of art and industry during the Great Depression.For example, in his book The Postal Age, DavidHenkin examines mail users rather than the state postalsystem or the envelopes themselves. 2 As a result, he makesnew discoveries about how mail changed lives and howlifestyles changed mail handling in the nineteenth century.Henkin inspired me to examine the mail in my collectionthat the LZ127 Graf Zeppelin had flown from Germanyto Brazil to the United States and back to Germanyon the 1933 Chicago flight. 3 I was stunned to discover thatforty of sixty covers in my United States dispatches hadnames of Germanic origin for either the American senderor American addressee. Of course, German language immigrantscomprised the largest ethnic group in Chicago,almost thirteen percent of the city’s population in 1930.Even Ernst J. Kruetgen, the city’s postmaster, was of Germanheritage. So while other collectors also serviced mail,the Graf Zeppelin’s visit was a source of especial pride forthe German American community. This evidence provedsignificant when I studied the German American community’sreaction to the zeppelin visit. 4Case Study: Fifty-Cent Graf ZeppelinA Century of Progress StampGermans had been celebrating the progress of zeppelinssince Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew his first design,the LZ1, on July 2, 1900. The zeppelin had becomea symbol not only of German nationalism, but also ofthe nation’s economic resurgence. Zeppelin fever, reflectingthe pride and awe of the Germans for these masterpiecesof airship technology, ran rampant. German airshiptechnology first linked to nationalism in 1908 when aspontaneous public outpouring of funds followed the destructionof Zeppelin’s fourth dirigible, the LZ4. AfterWorld War I, the Zeppelin Company and many aviationsupporters promoted airships as the vehicles of the futurefor long distance travel and transport, connecting the airshiproutes to local airline routes. Air-minded Americansalso caught zeppelin fever, a contagious enthusiasm sweepingthe country as airships floated overhead. 5Approaching Chicago at daybreak on October 26,1933, Commander Hugo Eckener ordered the Graf Zeppelin,a 775-foot long German airship, to fly west beyondthe city and then to circle clockwise, although a northerlyroute from Indiana with an approach to Chicago from theeast over Lake Michigan would have been more expeditious.After circling above the city for about an hour, theGraf Zeppelin flew north to suburban Glenview for a briefexchange of passengers and mail.Adolph Hitler, leader of the National Socialist party,had become Chancellor of Germany earlier that year. TheGerman government had required the Zeppelin Companyto paint the National Socialists’ swastika banner, whichwas one of the two official German flags, on the portside of the upper and lower tail fins (Figure 1). 6 Ratherthan display the two red billboards featuring twenty-footswastikas, Eckener preferred to show Chicagoans thestarboard side of the craft, which featured the traditionaltri-color German flag. 7Willy von Meister, the United States special representativeof Luftschiffbau Zeppelin G.m.b.H., the ZeppelinCompany, was in the control car with Eckener duringthe approach to Chicago. He asked why Eckener had nottaken the shorter circle. “And let my friends in Chicagosee the swastikas?” asked Eckener, who had a doctorate inpsychology and was sensitive to the German community’sreaction.As a result of the arrival time, the choice of the flightpath, and the press’s selections of which photographs topublish to represent this flight, the local population sawmore images of the Graf Zeppelin with the swastika thanwithout it. In flying a route that brought the airship overLake Michigan, parallel to and east of Chicago at daybreak,the Graf Zeppelin became a silhouette against thesunrise. Photographers either could take photographs ofthe shadow side of the airship over the lake or, as it madeits circle over the fairgrounds and central business district,the sunlit side with the photogenic elements of the city inthe background. In order to photograph the Graf Zeppelinwith the fairgrounds in the same image, one newspaperphotographer shot his images from an airplane. He was
n u m b e r 5 5 • 4 1Figure 1. The LZ127 Graf Zeppelin in the Akron airship hangar, mooring site before and afterits flight to Chicago. Both German flags, the swastika on port side (left) and the traditional tri-coloron starboard side (right), are nearly visible from this perspective of the lower tail fin. Bill Schneider,photographer. From the collection of Cheryl R. Ganz.able to capture the sunlit side of the Graf Zeppelin overthe Chicago World’s Fair, and consequently his photographshowcased the swastika. The Chicago Daily Newsand the New York Times published these images, reachingyet a larger audience than the eyewitnesses. 8Germany’s Graf Zeppelin became the fair’s mostpowerful and divisive emblem of national identity. As asymbol of Germany and its technological progress, theGraf Zeppelin captured the public’s imagination and ultimatelybecame an international symbol of goodwill andcooperation. On the other hand, the swastika broadcastanti-Semitism and Hitler’s National Socialist policies. Theswastika clearly inspired racial pride and patriotic obediencein Nazi followers, but it antagonized or embarrassedmany German Americans.On August 1, 1933, the Zeppelin Company had respondedto an official invitation from Rufus Dawes, presidentof A Century of Progress. Hugo Eckener had acceptedthe invitation, saying that the LZ127 would visit Chicagoas an extension of the final trip of the 1933 season to Brazilif the United States Post Office Department would issue azeppelin postage stamp. Eckener had requested the stampbecause he needed to secure adequate financing beforecommitting to the special flight. He had proposed sharingprofits from the sale of the zeppelin postage stamp.The plan was not unique. Philatelists in Germany, Europe,and the United States had already financed several specialflights of the Graf Zeppelin by purchasing special postagestamps and by sending mail for flights to the Arctic, SouthAmerica, and around the world.President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s lack of support forthe stamp threatened to bury the idea and create diplomaticproblems with Germany. The Bureau of Engravingand Printing, which designed and printed postage stampsfor the Post Office Department, had prepared three designsof the stamp to be presented to Roosevelt for his finalapproval. The president immediately protested, “This zeppelinis just toddling back and forth across the ocean. Idon’t see why a stamp should be issued again for it,” andhe rejected the issue. 9 Negotiations followed, and Secretaryof State Cordell Hull advised that the breach of diplomacyresulting from the rejection of the stamp issue wouldbe a disaster. 10 The argument swayed Roosevelt, and thenew zeppelin stamp was available at the New York Citypost office just ten days after approval.As printed, the fifty-cent green stamp depicted theGraf Zeppelin without the swastika, the Federal Buildingat the Chicago fair, and one of the zeppelin hangars inFriedrichshafen, Germany. 11 The United States Post OfficeDepartment would receive fifteen percent or 7.5 cents ofthe fifty-cent rate. The remaining 42.5 cents would be paidto the German Postal Administration to help offset the
Page 1 and 2: Smithsonian InstitutionScholarly Pr
Page 3 and 4: smithsonian contributions to histor
Page 5: ContentsLETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF
Page 9: AcknowledgmentsThe symposium would
Page 12 and 13: 2 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t
Page 20 and 21: 1 0 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n
Page 25 and 26: “Little Colored Bits of Paper”C
Page 27 and 28: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 7as something
Page 29 and 30: n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 9protest came
Page 31 and 32: n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 1nals I revie
Page 33 and 34: WWI Philatelic Censuses of East Afr
Page 35 and 36: n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 5Table 1. GEA
Page 37 and 38: n u m b e r 5 5 • 2 7Figure 5. MA
Page 39 and 40: Explorations in the Official Regist
Page 41 and 42: n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 1receipts. De
Page 43 and 44: n u m b e r 5 5 • 3 3TABLE 2. Pop
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Page 47: Introduction to the Second Symposiu
Page 59 and 60: “Food Will Win the War”: Motor
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Page 81 and 82: Picking Up the Pieces: The Aftermat
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Introduction to the Fourth Symposiu
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“Why Is a Raven Like a Writing De
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 3and prepai
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 5Figure 3.
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 7Figure 5.
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 2 9A Final No
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America’s First Carrier Service:T
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 3Figure 3.
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 5The glazed
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 7Intercity
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 3 9The End of
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The U.S. 1847 Issue:Stamps That Cha
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 4 3the positi
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 4 5stamps as
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From the Pulpit to the Post: Anti-
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 4 9The allege
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 5 1Individual
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n u m b e r 5 5 • 1 5 337. Archiv
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