Along with my friend Chuck Mitchell, and often in collaboration with my friend Chuck Mitchell, I have put together quite a few books in the Arcadia Publishing series of historic photo collections. Most of them are arranged around communities – I’ve covered our Bath and Corning books earlier in this series.
But our first collaboration was Glenn H. Curtiss: Aviation Pioneer. I was working as director of Curtiss Museum at the time, and Chuck had already done books on Penn Yan and Hammondsport. We decided to work together on a photobiography of Curtiss.
Glenn is just about the perfect subject for a photobiography. For one thing, he spent much of his life doing exciting, newsworthy stuff – lots of photos were made.
For another, he started on his career not long after George Eastman introduced roll film, democratizing photography… now almost ANYONE could take pictures, and it seemed like almost everyone did.
On top of that, Glenn had actually worked at the Eastman Company during his teen years. He built his own camera, and worked off and on as a professional photographer. He understood the advantages and the power of the medium.
And finally, at the very beginning of his aviation career he worked for 18 months with Alexander Graham Bell. Bell had spent years in court, finally triumphing in the defense of his telephone patent. Bell’s policy was, photo-document EVERYTHING. Young Mr. Curtiss, the former pro cameraman, took the point.
So to finally wend to MY point – there are LOTS of photos available in the Curtiss Museum archives.
Then we had to decide how to organize them and how to use pictures for storytelling. We called our first chapter (1878-1900) “On the Shores of Keuka Lake.” The photos for this section were mostly the older, more formal type, especially portraits of young Glenn and various members of his family. As far as I know, there is no definite photo of Glenn’s father, who died when the boy was four. But his mother and sister are here, and his beloved grandmother, plus portraits of Glenn and his bride… some taken by Glenn personally. Here too is the bicycle phase of his remarkable career.
Chapter 2 (1901-1907) is “Motorcycles: ‘That Amazing Mr. Curtiss.’” This is the time when Glenn began to make a mark on the wider world with his feats and his motorcycles, meanwhile making a mark on Hammondsport with his ever-expanding factory. At this stage photographers rushed to his side as he shattered record after record, and company publicity shots are plentiful too. This chapter includes his flirtation with blimps, and his goofy three-wheeled propeller-powered road vehicle.
The next chapter, “The Aerial Experiment Association,” covers 1908 and 1909. This is when the Glenn Curtiss that history knows emerges, working with Bell and others to create some of the world’s first airplanes… not to mention such enduring features as ailerons, tricycle landing gear, and water-cooled aero engines. Here are the Independence Day flight of the June Bug, hang glider experiments in the snow, the first army aircraft.
With Chapter 4 (1909-1914) Glenn has become, in the words of contemporary sheet music, “The King of the Air.” He flies spectacularly in France, makes America’s first long-distance flight (Albany to New York), creates the float plane, the flying boat, the first naval aircraft, supervises the first aircraft carrier experiments, and flies before thousands.
In 1914 through 1919 (Chapter 5) we presented Glenn as “A Captain of Industry.” His products were successful but his business still shaky – there was still not much call for the 11 year-old technology – when the First World War exploded. Allied militaries needed airplanes – airplanes – airplanes! Photography lets us follow along as he buys, builds or leases giant factories, employs thousands coast to coast, and builds acres of airplanes… 6000 of the Jenny type alone. The Great War made Glenn (who ten years earlier ran a bike shop in Hammondsport) a multimillionaire.
The final chapter “A Life of Innovation,” is far too short (1919-1932) in years. We see Glenn with his young son born in 1912, trying out golf and archery, still taking to the roads on his bike. He develops new products such as the Curtiss Aerocar streamlined travel trailer. He develops new businesses and even new cities (Hialeah, Miami Springs).
Which leads, of course, to the final picture. This is a vital selection – it puts the cap on the whole story. We chose a shot from shortly before his untimely death at 52. Glenn Curtiss, who famously almost always looked serious or even sour when a camera was in sight, grins and waves from the cockpit of a Curtiss Condor airliner. He’s just made what turned out to be his last flight. He’s flown from Albany to Buffalo, just as he’d done so daringly and magnificently 20 years before. No one knows it, but he has two months to live. We leave him in an airplane, and we leave him filled with joy.

Glenn H. Curtiss — Aviation Pioneer, with American and British naval aviators.