Extremely rare color semi-glossy official ‘red-numbered’ NASA photo, trimmed to a size of 9.75 x 7.5, signed and inscribed in black felt tip by White, “To Joyce—Thanks for all your help at KSC—with best wishes, Edward H. White II” and signed in black felt tip, “Gus Grissom,” and “Roger B. Chaffee.” This is paired with a one-of-a-kind set of two leather NASA identification tags from White’s and Grissom’s flight suits worn during trips to and from the Kennedy Space Center, both of which are moderately to heavily worn. Unlike all other Apollo missions, flight-worn materials from Apollo 1 are manifestly nonexistent; as the personal name patches from their earthly flight suits, these are essentially the closest possible surrogates extant. The signed photo and leather patches are attractively suede-matted and framed together with an Apollo 1 commemorative patch and a printed caption to an overall size of 23.25 x 18.25. Accompanied by a letter of provenance from Joyce Abrams, who served as the crew quarters attendant for the astronauts, in part: “The two leather uniform name patches for the Apollo 1 astronauts…are the original patches from the astronauts’ flight suits which were worn by them while flying into and out of Kennedy Space Center during Pres. John F. Kennedy’s Man to the Moon program.” Aforementioned trimming and a few scattered creases to photo, not detracting from the overall appearance, otherwise fine condition. This is easily considered the rarest of all Apollo crew signed portraits, few ‘red-numbered’ examples are known to exist; combined with the unique personally-worn name patches from the astronauts’ NASA flight suits, this is an absolutely remarkable display.
