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Count von Zeppelin, airship designer, 1910

 Digital Record
Identifier: VBI_000265

Dates

  • Creation: 1910

Creator

Conditions Governing Use

Access to the Theodore Newton Vail Collection of Aeronautical Images, Broadsides and Clippings is not authorization to publish. Separate written application for permission to publish must be made to the Institute Archives. Copyright of some items in this collection may be held by respective creators, not by the donor of the collection.

Biographical / Historical

Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838-1917) designed and built engine-powered air ships--known later as Zeppelins--after retiring from the army. He had achieved the rank of brigadier commander during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. Zeppelin started working on his plans for the dirigible in 1873, and after one less successful attempt, built a functional dirigible, the LZ-2, in 1905.

Language of Materials

German

Existence and Location of Originals

Box 11

Physical Description

Art on Paper

Dimensions

33.3 x 46.2 cm

General Note

Photographic portrait of inventor Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin by Ferdinand Leiber. Zeppelin is holding binoculars by his right ear, wearing a hat with a medal in the front center. "G. Zeppelin" is written below [perhaps a signature]. From a collection of portraits of scientists published by Photographische Gesellschaft, Berlin.

Sources used for Biographical/Historical note

Crouch, Tom D., Lighter Than Air, An Illustrated History of Balloons and Airships, (Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore), 74-77,82-85.

Hallion, Richard P., Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age from Antiquity through the First World War (Oxford University Press, New York, 2003), 94-98.

Repository Details

Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections Repository

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