Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974), nicknamed Slim, Lucky Lindy, and The Lone Eagle, was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.

On May 20-21, 1927, Lindbergh, who was previously a U.S. Airmail pilot, was the first to fly a solo nonstop flight from the Roosevelt Field in Garden City, New York Long Island, to Le Bourget Field, Paris, France, which is a distance of about 3,600 miles (5800 km). This incredible feat was performed in a single-seat, single-engine, purpose-built Ryan monoplane named the Spirit of St. Louis, and took 33 hours and 30 minutes to complete the flight. Lindbergh, who was also a U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve officer at the time, was also awarded the nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his historic and heroic achievement.

Lindbergh used his fame to promote the development of both commercial aviation and Air Mail services in the United States and the Americas. In March 1932, his infant son, Charles, Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what was soon dubbed the "Crime of the Century." The kidnapping led to the Lindbergh family's exile to Europe, to which they sailed in secrecy from New York under assumed names in late December 1935. The Lindbergh family returned to the United States in April 1939.

Lindbergh strongly supported the war effort after Pearl Harbor and flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific Theater of World War II as a civilian consultant, though President Franklin D. Roosevelt had refused to reinstate his Army Air Corps colonel's commission from which he had resigned in April 1941.

In his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific prize-winning author, international explorer, inventor, and environmentalist.

Link to the collection's Descriptive Finding Guide.

Link to the Ryan collection images on Flickr, which includes many images of Lindbergh.