Non-Aviators: Presidents

Our collection has images of almost every United State President since Teddy Roosevelt.  Some show them in some relation to aviation, and others are completley in a different context. 

On October 11, 1910, Teddy Roosevelt became the first President to fly, when he took to the air with Arch Hoxsey in Missouri.  They flew in a Wright Model B, and Roosevelt was no longer the sitting President, having just finished his second term.  

On May 15, 1918, the US Post Office started Air Mail service between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City. As this photo shows, President Woodrow Wilson and the First Lady were on hand to celebrate the event.  

Several photos of President Calvin Coolidge found their way into our collection.  Some without context (like the one on top), and manyrelated to Charles Lindbergh.  Coolidge was the President at the time that Lindbergh made his famous flight in 1927.

Herbert Hoover made the cut as well, including a photo of him with Hugo Eckener, of Zeppelin fame. 

We have several images of FDR, including group shots, the President alone, the President with the First Lady and him with Stalin and Churchill.

We also have several photos of the next President in line,Harry S. Truman.  The image at top is one of several of him that can be found in the Mitscher Collection.

We have some autographs of Presidents as well, including that of Dwight D. Eisenhower.  In the lower photo we see Ike presenting the Collier trophy to Ed Heinemann.

We found photos of JFK in our Convair Collection, taken during his visit to the Astonautics factory to see Atlas missile construction.

President Johnson was not camera shy when it came to our images, including an autographed image presented to T.C. Ryan.

There was no Watergate with Nixon images, we have a few, including an autogrpahed one that includes Eisenhower. 

I beg your pardon, but Gerald Ford is in our PSA collection.

An exciting find in our collection is this autographed photo by Jimmy Carter to Jimmy Doolittle. 

Our favorite images of Ronald Reagan include the one above with his wife and the one he presented to our volunteers (at bottom).

As a World War 2 aviator, H.W. Bush doesn't really fit the theme of this exhibit, but we have to include him, as we have photos of him in and our of an aviation context.

We have a few photos of President Clinton in our North Island collection, showing a time when he visited the Naval Station in the 1990s.

Like father, like son! We also have an image of the younger Bush.

As our collection tends to focus on items a few decades old, we do not have any images of Presidents Obama, Trump or Biden.  However, we do have an autographed box of M & Ms from Air Force One signed by President Obama! 

Next Page in this exhibit. 

San Diego Air & Space Museum

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