September 21, 2016
Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh:
Celebrity Couple Re-examined; Couple of an Age
Heather Smith and Beth Allan,
Curators of the Lindbergh Exhibit at Morven, Princeton, N.J.
Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh:
Celebrity Couple Re-examined; Couple of an Age
Heather Smith and Beth Allan,
Curators of the Lindbergh Exhibit at Morven, Princeton, N.J.
Stephen Schreiber, Heather Smith and Beth Allan
Minutes of the Second Meeting of the 75th Year
President Jock McFarlane called the meeting to order at 10:15 a.m. The invocation was led by Julia Cole.
Four guests were introduced and acknowledged.
The minutes of the meeting of Sept. 14, 2016 were read by Julie Denny.
Attendance was 91 members and guests.
The curators of the Lindbergh Exhibit at Morven were introduced by Stephen Schreiber. Ms. Allan received a B.S. in art history from Holy Cross University. Ms. Smith received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in decorative arts from Cooper Union. Mr. Schreiber introduced the subject, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Celebrity Couple Re-examined, by inviting the members of the Old Guard to respond by a show of hands to the answers of a series of questions about the lives and times of the Lindberghs and the Lindbergh exhibit at Morven.
Morven was built by Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and later became the first mansion for New Jersey’s governors. It is now a museum with a mission to interpret the cultural history of New Jersey. The idea of a Lindbergh exhibit originated with a member of the board of Morven who remembered listening to family members discussing the trial after the kidnapping and death of Charles Lindbergh Jr., and the effect it had on New Jersey and the nation.
Charles Lindbergh achieved celebrity status with his successful nonstop flight from New York to Paris in May 1927. Upon landing he was greeted as a hero by the French and received a hero’s welcome when he returned to New York. With his newfound celebrity status, Lindbergh toured the United States and was invited to many countries. On Dec. 25, 1927 he visited Mexico City at the invitation of the American Ambassador, Dwight Morrow. There he met Anne Morrow who was to become his wife two years later, and the story of America’s celebrity couple began.
In the Morven exhibit the story of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh is portrayed in five galleries using larger-than-life size images, quotations, historic film footage, maps and artifacts.
The first gallery focuses on the preparation for Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic to Paris. His early experience as an air mail pilot gave him the skills and confidence to fly a small, single engine aircraft, equipped with only the most rudimentary of instruments in all kinds of weather. In preparation for the flight, Lindbergh designed the aircraft, charted the route and sought and found the financial backing needed to build, test and prove the performance of his aircraft.
The former Trunk Room in Morven transitions the viewer from Gallery 1 to Gallery 2, and shows the desire of the Lindberghs to move from the spotlight of celebrity to a hoped for normal life of private citizens in Hopewell, N.J. Here the visitor encounters the toddler Charles Lindbergh Jr. at play. Anne’s skills as an aircraft radio operator and navigator are also illustrated as a preview of the many flights that the Lindberghs made together with Charles as pilot and Anne as the crew.
Gallery 2 explores the height of Lindbergh’s fame, beginning with his arrival at Le Bourget airfield outside of Paris, where the young, handsome and poised American pilot was greeted by 150,000 enthralled Parisians. Gallery 2 leads the viewer to Charles meeting Anne in Mexico City in 1927 and their courtship and marriage.
Gallery 3 is intentionally dark, grim and hopeless, to mirror a similar period in the lives of the Lindberghs -- the kidnapping and death of the 20-month-old Charles, Jr. Through the use of timelines, images and headlines form The New York Times, the viewer is drawn into the sense of shock and anger felt by millions of Americans for the loss of the first-born son of America’s beloved hero.
The fourth gallery focuses on the trial of the accused murderer, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, in Hunterdon County Courthouse, in Flemington, N.J. The eyes of the world were drawn to Flemington as newspapers sent their best reporters and people traveled to Flemington to witness and be a part of history. Many of the souvenirs that were created for the trial, and many artifacts from the trial are exhibited in Gallery 4.
Lindbergh’s attorney at the trial, Henry Breckinridge, later described the moment in the trial when Hauptmann’s fate was sealed: “The minute Lindbergh pointed his finger at Hauptmann the trial was over. ‘Jesus Christ’ himself said that he was convinced this was the man who killed his son. Who was anybody to doubt him or deny him justice?”
The final gallery, Gallery 5, covers the period from 1935 to the death of Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 2001. To escape what we would now call the paparazzi, the Lindberghs moved to Europe, first to England and then to France. At the request of the State Department, having been asked to assess the state of the Luftwaffe and German aircraft technology, Lindbergh visited Germany as a guest of the Nazi regime.
He was welcomed by the German government and presented with a Nazi medal, the Service Cross of the German Eagle, in a ceremony at the United States Embassy in Berlin. The medal is included in the exhibit. The Lindberghs considered living in Germany but returned to America before the start of World War II, where Charles Lindbergh became the nominal head and spokesman for a nativist and isolationist political movement called America First. In addition to his isolationist statements, Lindbergh’s speeches and writings for America First included many anti-Semitic statements and calls for racial purity. Some of Lindbergh’s statements shown in the exhibit have a haunting ring in light of our current presidential campaign:
“We, the heirs of European culture, are on the verge of a disastrous war…a war that will reduce and destroy the treasures of the White race, a war that may even lead to the end of our civilization.”
He resigned his commission as a colonel in the Army Air Corps after President Roosevelt publically criticized what he considered to be Lindbergh’s pro-Nazi positions. After America entered the war, Lindbergh attempted to reinstate his commission in the Army Air Corps but was blocked from doing so by Roosevelt. Having been prevented from returning to military duty, Lindbergh tried to gain employment as a consultant with the military aircraft industry, but was again blocked from doing so. The restrictions on his employment were eventually lifted as the war progressed, and he found a role in the American aircraft industry. Toward the end of war, while employed as a consultant, he flew as a civilian in military action in the South Pacific.
Following the war, Lindbergh turned his interest to conservation and Anne Lindbergh to writing. As described by their daughter Reeve, their relationship became complex, “…and it was sometimes an uneasy and uncomfortable union.” Anne had an affair with Dr. Dana Atchely, an internist at Presbyterian Hospital. As disclosed in 2002, Lindbergh had seven additional children with three mistresses in addition to his six with Anne.
Charles Lindbergh died on Aug. 26, 1974, at age 72. Anne Morrow Lindbergh died on Feb. 7, 2001 at 95.
The talk was followed by a lively question and answer period. Some of the questioners asked about Lindbergh’s youth and early flying experience. The answers made clear that Lindbergh was not the farm boy that the press made him out to be. His father and other relatives that were influential on his life were educated and professionals.
For example, young Lindbergh was interested in and experimented with the materials that he found in his uncle’s dental laboratory. He dropped out of college to purse his interest in flying, learned to fly in Nebraska and flew as an air mail pilot in the Army Air Corps reserve. Others sought to gain further insight into his relationship with the Nazi regime and his racist and anti-Semitic speeches and writings upon the Lindberghs return to the United States from Germany in 1939. Here one can only speculate that Charles was influenced by the isolationist and nativist turn of America after World War I that extended through the 1930s, and the fairly widespread anti-Semitism and racism that were present in the United States during his youth and much of his adult life.
I would be remiss to end these minutes without a personal observation. As a boy fascinated by gliders and airplanes, the 1930s and early 1940s were replete with heroes. They bore names like Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Juan Trippe, and Amelia Earhart and of course Charles Lindbergh. In today’s aviation parlance they pushed the envelope to fly faster, higher and nonstop over longer distances. Through their work and the work of many others, aviation progressed from stunt flying at carnivals in the 1920s to scheduled commercial air travel by the end of the 1930s.
Their achievements influenced me to become an aeronautical engineer. It led to a career that I couldn’t even imagine when I completed my undergraduate education and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force in early 1950. My career spanned work on military aircraft in the early 1950s to work on weather satellites, mapping satellites, navigation satellites and commercial communication satellites.
Along the way, I found that some of my heroes, including Charles Lindbergh, were seriously flawed human beings. But I often wonder if, without their achievements and celebrity status, I would have found the same career path and professional satisfaction in my work.
Respectfully submitted,
Bernard Paul Miller
Four guests were introduced and acknowledged.
The minutes of the meeting of Sept. 14, 2016 were read by Julie Denny.
Attendance was 91 members and guests.
The curators of the Lindbergh Exhibit at Morven were introduced by Stephen Schreiber. Ms. Allan received a B.S. in art history from Holy Cross University. Ms. Smith received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in decorative arts from Cooper Union. Mr. Schreiber introduced the subject, Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Celebrity Couple Re-examined, by inviting the members of the Old Guard to respond by a show of hands to the answers of a series of questions about the lives and times of the Lindberghs and the Lindbergh exhibit at Morven.
Morven was built by Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and later became the first mansion for New Jersey’s governors. It is now a museum with a mission to interpret the cultural history of New Jersey. The idea of a Lindbergh exhibit originated with a member of the board of Morven who remembered listening to family members discussing the trial after the kidnapping and death of Charles Lindbergh Jr., and the effect it had on New Jersey and the nation.
Charles Lindbergh achieved celebrity status with his successful nonstop flight from New York to Paris in May 1927. Upon landing he was greeted as a hero by the French and received a hero’s welcome when he returned to New York. With his newfound celebrity status, Lindbergh toured the United States and was invited to many countries. On Dec. 25, 1927 he visited Mexico City at the invitation of the American Ambassador, Dwight Morrow. There he met Anne Morrow who was to become his wife two years later, and the story of America’s celebrity couple began.
In the Morven exhibit the story of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh is portrayed in five galleries using larger-than-life size images, quotations, historic film footage, maps and artifacts.
The first gallery focuses on the preparation for Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic to Paris. His early experience as an air mail pilot gave him the skills and confidence to fly a small, single engine aircraft, equipped with only the most rudimentary of instruments in all kinds of weather. In preparation for the flight, Lindbergh designed the aircraft, charted the route and sought and found the financial backing needed to build, test and prove the performance of his aircraft.
The former Trunk Room in Morven transitions the viewer from Gallery 1 to Gallery 2, and shows the desire of the Lindberghs to move from the spotlight of celebrity to a hoped for normal life of private citizens in Hopewell, N.J. Here the visitor encounters the toddler Charles Lindbergh Jr. at play. Anne’s skills as an aircraft radio operator and navigator are also illustrated as a preview of the many flights that the Lindberghs made together with Charles as pilot and Anne as the crew.
Gallery 2 explores the height of Lindbergh’s fame, beginning with his arrival at Le Bourget airfield outside of Paris, where the young, handsome and poised American pilot was greeted by 150,000 enthralled Parisians. Gallery 2 leads the viewer to Charles meeting Anne in Mexico City in 1927 and their courtship and marriage.
Gallery 3 is intentionally dark, grim and hopeless, to mirror a similar period in the lives of the Lindberghs -- the kidnapping and death of the 20-month-old Charles, Jr. Through the use of timelines, images and headlines form The New York Times, the viewer is drawn into the sense of shock and anger felt by millions of Americans for the loss of the first-born son of America’s beloved hero.
The fourth gallery focuses on the trial of the accused murderer, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, in Hunterdon County Courthouse, in Flemington, N.J. The eyes of the world were drawn to Flemington as newspapers sent their best reporters and people traveled to Flemington to witness and be a part of history. Many of the souvenirs that were created for the trial, and many artifacts from the trial are exhibited in Gallery 4.
Lindbergh’s attorney at the trial, Henry Breckinridge, later described the moment in the trial when Hauptmann’s fate was sealed: “The minute Lindbergh pointed his finger at Hauptmann the trial was over. ‘Jesus Christ’ himself said that he was convinced this was the man who killed his son. Who was anybody to doubt him or deny him justice?”
The final gallery, Gallery 5, covers the period from 1935 to the death of Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 2001. To escape what we would now call the paparazzi, the Lindberghs moved to Europe, first to England and then to France. At the request of the State Department, having been asked to assess the state of the Luftwaffe and German aircraft technology, Lindbergh visited Germany as a guest of the Nazi regime.
He was welcomed by the German government and presented with a Nazi medal, the Service Cross of the German Eagle, in a ceremony at the United States Embassy in Berlin. The medal is included in the exhibit. The Lindberghs considered living in Germany but returned to America before the start of World War II, where Charles Lindbergh became the nominal head and spokesman for a nativist and isolationist political movement called America First. In addition to his isolationist statements, Lindbergh’s speeches and writings for America First included many anti-Semitic statements and calls for racial purity. Some of Lindbergh’s statements shown in the exhibit have a haunting ring in light of our current presidential campaign:
“We, the heirs of European culture, are on the verge of a disastrous war…a war that will reduce and destroy the treasures of the White race, a war that may even lead to the end of our civilization.”
He resigned his commission as a colonel in the Army Air Corps after President Roosevelt publically criticized what he considered to be Lindbergh’s pro-Nazi positions. After America entered the war, Lindbergh attempted to reinstate his commission in the Army Air Corps but was blocked from doing so by Roosevelt. Having been prevented from returning to military duty, Lindbergh tried to gain employment as a consultant with the military aircraft industry, but was again blocked from doing so. The restrictions on his employment were eventually lifted as the war progressed, and he found a role in the American aircraft industry. Toward the end of war, while employed as a consultant, he flew as a civilian in military action in the South Pacific.
Following the war, Lindbergh turned his interest to conservation and Anne Lindbergh to writing. As described by their daughter Reeve, their relationship became complex, “…and it was sometimes an uneasy and uncomfortable union.” Anne had an affair with Dr. Dana Atchely, an internist at Presbyterian Hospital. As disclosed in 2002, Lindbergh had seven additional children with three mistresses in addition to his six with Anne.
Charles Lindbergh died on Aug. 26, 1974, at age 72. Anne Morrow Lindbergh died on Feb. 7, 2001 at 95.
The talk was followed by a lively question and answer period. Some of the questioners asked about Lindbergh’s youth and early flying experience. The answers made clear that Lindbergh was not the farm boy that the press made him out to be. His father and other relatives that were influential on his life were educated and professionals.
For example, young Lindbergh was interested in and experimented with the materials that he found in his uncle’s dental laboratory. He dropped out of college to purse his interest in flying, learned to fly in Nebraska and flew as an air mail pilot in the Army Air Corps reserve. Others sought to gain further insight into his relationship with the Nazi regime and his racist and anti-Semitic speeches and writings upon the Lindberghs return to the United States from Germany in 1939. Here one can only speculate that Charles was influenced by the isolationist and nativist turn of America after World War I that extended through the 1930s, and the fairly widespread anti-Semitism and racism that were present in the United States during his youth and much of his adult life.
I would be remiss to end these minutes without a personal observation. As a boy fascinated by gliders and airplanes, the 1930s and early 1940s were replete with heroes. They bore names like Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Juan Trippe, and Amelia Earhart and of course Charles Lindbergh. In today’s aviation parlance they pushed the envelope to fly faster, higher and nonstop over longer distances. Through their work and the work of many others, aviation progressed from stunt flying at carnivals in the 1920s to scheduled commercial air travel by the end of the 1930s.
Their achievements influenced me to become an aeronautical engineer. It led to a career that I couldn’t even imagine when I completed my undergraduate education and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force in early 1950. My career spanned work on military aircraft in the early 1950s to work on weather satellites, mapping satellites, navigation satellites and commercial communication satellites.
Along the way, I found that some of my heroes, including Charles Lindbergh, were seriously flawed human beings. But I often wonder if, without their achievements and celebrity status, I would have found the same career path and professional satisfaction in my work.
Respectfully submitted,
Bernard Paul Miller