Scope and Content Note
The Tissandier Collection on the History of Aeronautics spans the years 1539-1929, with the bulk of the material dating from 1780 to 1920. The collection includes correspondence, graphic material, photographs, writings, printed matter, and scrapbooks pertaining primarily to balloon flights of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Also included are material relevant to early heavier-than-air flight and the aeronautic careers of Gaston Tissandier (1843-1899) and Albert Tissandier (1839-1906) as well as art work of Albert Tissandier. The papers are mainly in French with some in English, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. The collection is organized in the following series: Aeronauts , Correspondence , Writings by Gaston Tissandier , Scrapbooks , Dupuis-Delcourt File , and a Miscellany consisting of printed matter and newspaper clippings, extracts and notes on aeronautics, graphic material, and photographs.
Gaston Tissandier, scientist, aeronaut, dirigible builder, and aeronautical historian, is responsible for collecting the bulk of this material. The work of his brother, Albert Tissandier , a graphic artist who participated in and made illustrations of many of Gaston's aeronautical projects, is also well represented in the collection. Gaston Tissandier's son, Paul, a noted aeronaut and aviator in his own right, added to the collection during the first decades of the twentieth century. The Dupuis-Delcourt File , originally an independent collection gathered prior to 1860 by J. F. Dupuis-Delcourt * (1802-1864), aeronaut, balloon builder, author, and promoter of aeronautical projects, was acquired by Gaston Tissandier.
* Dupuis-Delcourt's name is usually given as “Jules François” but sometimes as “Jean François.”
The Aeronauts series consists of files on individual aeronauts holding items collected by Gaston Tissandier, but also including items transferred by Tissandier from the Dupuis-Delcourt collection. The series contains correspondence, printed matter, newspaper clippings, handbills, broadsides, manuscripts, photographs, technical drawings, and miscellany such as balloon fragments. Pioneering aeronauts and airship builders from the first century of flight are particularly well represented. Included are files on Salomon August Andrée, Francesco Arban, Jean-August Pierre Blanchard, Madame Blanchard, Octave Chanute, Jacques Alexandre César Charles, Nicholas Jacques Conté, Barthélemy Faujas de St.-Fond, André Jacques Garnerin, Henri Giffard, Charles Green, Robert Holland, François Lhoste, Vincent Lunardi, Jean Margat, Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, E. G. Robertson, Augusto Severo, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Gabriel Yon, and Francesco Zambeccari.
The files contain material on numerous balloon and dirigible flights. Accounts of the first balloon flights, the first fatal balloon accident, the first English Channel crossing by balloon, the first flight of a woman, the first dirigible flights, and other ’firsts' are included, as are important aerial milestones such as flights by Gay-Lussac for the purpose of conducting scientific experiments and Andrée's arctic balloon expedition, as well as disasters such as the explosion and crash of Severo's dirigible, Pax. Benjamin Franklin, American ambassador to Paris at the time, is represented by letters containing his observations on the first manned balloon ascents. There is also a letter from Antoine Laurent Lavoisier inviting Jacques Alexandre César Charles to participate in an experiment demonstrating the decomposition of water and the production of hydrogen. Individuals may appear in both this file and the Dupuis-Delcourt File .
The Correspondence series contains miscellaneous correspondence of both Gaston and Paul Tissandier, primarily received correspondence.
The Writings by Gaston Tissandier series holds published articles and drafts by Tissandier. Most of the writings concern aeronautics, but they also include articles on chemistry and atmospheric dust. Gaston Tissandier served as editor for the journal La nature, and a scrapbook of his frequent contributions to that journal is in this series.
The Scrapbooks series contains material on various aeronautical topics. Of special interest are four volumes on the Siege of Paris and the role of balloonists during the Franco-Prussian War. The aeronautical careers of Gaston and Albert Tissandier are documented in several of the scrapbooks.
The Dupuis-Delcourt File contains what remains of J. F. Dupuis-Delcourt's collection after items in the original collection were incorporated into the Tissandier Aeronaut series by Gaston or Paul Tissandier. The bulk of the file dates from 1783 to1863 and contains printed matter, newspaper clippings, drawings, engravings, posters, handbills, and balloon fragments. About half of the file is devoted to individual aeronauts. The remainder consists of accounts of ordinary and extraordinary balloon flights, practical and fantastical designs for and attempts at aerial navigation, advertisements and tickets for balloon flights, correspondence, material pertaining to the Société Aéronautique et Météorologique, and writings by Dupuis-Delcourt. The file features many of the same aeronauts as the Tissandier Aeronaut series. For many years Dupuis-Delcourt served as secretary and archivist of the Société Aéronautique et Météorologique, and his personal relationships with many of the leading aeronauts is evidenced in his correspondence. He cooperated with E. G. Robertson on many balloon flights, and the file contains a large volume of their correspondence. The turbulent political climate in France during the period is represented by political posters from the 1848 Revolution and the ascent of Louis Napoleon, 1851-1852.