TLS signed “Charles A. Lindbergh,” one page, 8.5 x 11, December 18, 1966. Lindbergh writes to Mrs. A. E. Ebeling. In part: “As you know, the papers, letters, documents, laboratory records, etc. from Dr. Carrel’s Department of Experimental Surgery at the Rockefeller Institute were given to Georgetown University many years ago. In recent years, the University has been making a study of Dr. Carrel’s work and a special room has been devoted to this purpose. Along with Dr. Carrel’s papers, there are of course many papers and documents related to Dr. Ebeling. I write at this time to ask if you have any additional papers you would be willing to add to the collection at Georgetown University—letters, records that Dr. Ebeling may have kept, etc. If so, they would undoubtedly be of great value in the research now being carried on…. Interest in Dr. Carrel and his co-workers has been increasing rapidly in recent years….” Ebeling was the wife of A. E. Ebeling, a close associate of vascular researcher Alexis Carrel (1873–1944), recipient of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Medicine. In the 1930s, Lindbergh’s mechanical inclinations led to a collaboration with Carrel on a book titled The Culture of Organs, as well as on the development of a “perfusion pump” which allowed human organs to survive outside the body—a crucial advance in the development of organ transplants and open-heart surgery. Despite the acclaim lavished upon Lindbergh and Carrel, who appeared together on the cover of Time magazine in June 1938, their respective legacies were forever clouded by intertwined controversies. At a time when the Nazi regime was becoming ever more blatant in its aims, Carrel, a devoted eugenicist, vigorously promoted the notion of genetic “superiority” among an elite group of intellectuals, going so far as to advocate the use of gas chambers to rid humanity of “inferior” stock. During World War II, moreover, he was closely allied with a prominent collaborationist party in France and implemented a number of policies believed to have resulted in the execution of countless “defectives.” Carrel’s ties with Lindbergh only added fuel to the persistent, lifelong accusations of anti-Semitism against the flier, which would forever sully his image as an aviation hero. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope. Intersecting mailing folds (vertical fold to first name), otherwise very fine, fresh condition. R&R COA.
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