Louis Floyd Larson was born in Lakeland, Minnesota on March 7, 1919; his wife, Gladys Evelyn, was born November 19, 1922. The couple lived in Arlington Heights, IL from about 1951 to 1982 where they were friends and neighbors with Ralph and Eileen Young. Ralph served during WWII in Germany when he came into possession of two photo albums; one of Zeppelins and another of WWI photographs. The majority of the photos are stamped on the back with “Charles Donald” of Union City, New Jersey. Apparently Mr. Donald was a collector and seller of WWI aviation photographs and negatives, military medals, and Richtofen memorabilia. An ad in the October and November 1945 issues of Flying magazine states, “War Air photos 1914-18. Clear glossy photographs, Spads, Camels, Nieuports, Fokkers, Albatross on the ground and in the air. Rare Richtofen photographs, Aces, and Crashes. 3 cent stamp brings price lists.” Maybe Ralph purchased the photos from Charles. Ralph and Eileen eventually moved to Fort Worth, TX, and about 1975, Lou and Gladys drove from Illinois to Texas to visit Eileen after Ralph had passed away. The photographs had been in Ralph’s possession for thirty years and Eileen was ready to toss them out when Lou asked if he could keep them. Lou enjoyed them for another thirty-seven years before they were donated to the museum in 2012. Lou, a retired IBM engineer, and Gladys now reside in Arkansas.

Link to the collection's Descriptive Finding Guide.

Link to the collection's images on Flickr.