Spiritual Forum

ADMIRAL RICHARD BYRD Lecture program signed the year of his first Antarctic expedition Program signed: “R. E. Byrd”, 6¼x9, 2 pages (integral leaf), folded 12½x9 open flat. Program for a lecture by Byrd in Taunton, Massachusetts, April 16, 1928. Signed below his picture on front. Signed the year Byrd was organizing his first Antarctic expedition. (His expedition would sail south in October 1928.) Just a year earlier, on May 9, 1926, Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) and Floyd Bennett claimed the first flight over the North Pole. The flight had been funded in part by business leaders that included Vincent Astor, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Rodman Wanamaker and Edsel Ford. (Byrd named his plane Josephine Ford in honor of Ford’s daughter). After the flight, Byrd was promoted to Commander and there was an outpouring of public support for his proposed expeditions to Antarctica. The first, funded by the National Geographic Society as well as private donations, took place from 1928-1930; the second in 1933-1935. In 1929, during his first expedition, Byrd established the “Little America” Antarctic base. On November 28-29, 1929, he and three others crossed the South Pole in a 1,600-mile airplane flight. On Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition, he discovered Marie Byrd Land and the Edsel Ford Mountains. The polar explorer made three additional Antarctic expeditions through 1956. There is some dispute about whether his Arctic flight actually reached the North Pole, but none about his South Pole first. Byrd was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. His brother was powerful Virginia Governor and Senator Harry F. Byrd. Corners lightly creased and chipped. One vertical fold crease through center. Otherwise fine condition.