Scope and Content Note
The records of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics span the years from 1925-1943, with the majority of the material dating from 1926-1930. The records are in English and German and are organized into the following series: General Correspondence , Fund Records , Legal and Financial Records , and R. H. Mayo Material .
The records of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics give a comprehensive picture of the development of American commercial aviation during the late 1920s. The purpose of the fund, which existed from 1926 to 1930, was to facilitate the technical development, improve the safety, and expand the popularity of flying for passenger and freight uses. To achieve these goals, the fund donated money for scientific research, for aid to aeronautical education, and for the dissemination of information. The collection is composed largely of correspondence to and from the organization’s president, Harry Frank Guggenheim, the fund vice presidents, Admirals Hutchinson Ingham Cone and Emory Scott Land, and numerous scientists, educators, and other investigators whose work the fund sponsored and encouraged. Also included are reports and articles, some published and some in manuscript form; annual reports and the fund's final report; and many pamphlets published by the fund on its projects.
The records of the fund are mainly concerned with scientific research and development and with financial grants for aeronautical research to various universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology. In addition, there is material dealing with the fund's program of increasing public interest in aviation, such as the subsidizing of Charles A. Lindbergh's tour of the United States in 1927. Some of aviation's international aspects are covered in correspondence between the fund and such European organizations as the Aero-Club von Deutschland, the Associazione italiana di aerotecnica, and the Royal Aeronautical Society, England.