Sotheby's: Photographs: Lot 58
MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE 1904-1971 SIKORSKY ENGINE
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warm-toned with black border, mounted, signed by the photographer in pencil on the mount, circa 1934 (Photography of Design, p. 153; American Century, p. 299)
PROVENANCE
Sotheby's New York, 5 October 1994, Sale 6599, Lot 31
CATALOGUE NOTE
The aeronautical engineer Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972) was born in Russia; he became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1928. He built and flew the first multimotor airplane, 1913; produced the first commercial amphibian airplane, 1928; and developed a practical helicopter in 1939. He headed a branch of the United Aircraft Corporation from 1929 until his retirement in 1957.
In 1934, Pan American Airways hired Bourke-White to produce a series of photographs on "the story of aviation," showing all aspects of the flight experience -- from baggage handling to aircraft structure. It is likely that this image was taken in conjunction with this assignment (cf. Silverman, p. 86, for a photograph of Sikorsky standing beside a Pan Am plane he designed).
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