Program cover, 8.5 x 11, for the Progress Dinner of United Business Interests to the Aviation Industry, Under the Auspices of the National Exchange Club, held on January 29, 1929, a the Hotel Commodore in New York, and bearing a small metallic airplane affixed to the bottom. Signed on the front in fountain pen by thirty-four attendees of the dinner. Calligraphy notation to top left corner reads, “Autographed for E. C. Learock, Airway Marketing.” Signers include Calvin Coolidge, Amelia Earhart, Frank Hawks (with a notation added later reading “Los Angeles to New York 18hrs 21 min non stop Feb 4th & 5th–1929”), John J. White (president of the company sponsoring the event), John Finley (Editor of the New York Times), Frank James (senator from Michigan), Frank Titchner (Editor of Aero Digest), Frank Gilbert (aviation authority), Chance Vogth (Engineer of naval planes), T. J. Wheat (naval engineer), J. E. Fechet (U. S. Air Corps Major General), Captain Ira Eakers (U. S. Air Corps), Carl Spatz (general in the U. S. Air Corps), E. R. Quiesada (U. S. Air Corps), Roy S. Hoyt (U. S. Air Corps), Roy W. Hoor, Edward P. Warner (Assistant Secretary of the Army), Fridtjof Nansen (famed Arctic explorer), Merle Thorp, Father John Sullivan, adding “That bird of pray,” (Air Corps Chief Chaplain in World War I), Clarence D. Chamberlain (aviation pioneer), Carl Gilbert, Harry S. New (Postmaster General), F. Trubee Davidson (Assistant Secretary of the Navy), David Lawrence, Colonel W. P. MacCracken, Anthony Fokker (aircraft designer), Earl Osborn and William Hordkinson (noted aircraft designers), Irving Glover (assistant Secretary of the Post Office), George F. Carlille, I. A. Shearer, Mrs. Floyd Bennett (wife of famed aviator Floyd Bennett, who died attempting to rescue a grounded ship), and J. P. Muller (National Secretary of Exchange). The National Exchange Club and the Women’s International Association of Aeronautics would create the first women’s transcontinental air race. Men’s transcontinental air races were already popular events. The women’s race course would operate the same as the men’s. Prize money of $8,000 was offered to the women, who wanted to show that they could fly just as well as men in a competition event. Earhart made her first attempt at competitive air racing in 1929 during the first Santa Monica–to–Cleveland Women’s Air Derby (later nicknamed the “Powder Puff Derby” by Will Rogers), placing third. In fine condition, with a bit of scattered light foxing and toning, slight feathering to a few signatures due to excess ink flow, and a few slight edge creases. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
