[Art Smith at the wheel of an airplane]
Photograph
[Art Smith at the wheel of an airplane]
From the album [Snapshots from travels in the United States and Canada]
1915 - 1917
Gelatin silver prints
Overall: 3 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. (8.9 × 14 cm)
Gift of the 3M Foundation, ex-collection Louis Walton Sipley, 1977
1978.1292.0101a
Inscriptions Typed in ink on slip of paper placed behind photograph: Art Smith, aviator and stunt performer whom we saw fly and do stunts in this open type of air-plane while we lived in Richmond, Va. about 1915 to 1917. Later, we chanced to see where he had been killed. It was given in a newspaper of Feb. 12, '26.
At this time (A.T.,) A. Thomas Nelson made a box kite which he flew for amusement from the top of the Presbyterian Publishing House on 6th St., near Main: perhaps between Grace & Main Sts. I did have the address. The box kite looked so much like the open airplanes of that day, and being unable to tell it's size when at a distance in the air, it caused some quiet commotion. One morning a very genteel but strange man called where we were living at 318 E. Byrd St., near Gambols Hill Park. The house is now torn down. He was a Pinkerton man. While they did not think it was an enemy plane, munitions were being manufactured near by and they took no chances about checking and looking into the matter. He asked A.T. all sorts of questions so that he was certain about it when he left our place.
At. another time, Mr. Nelson was making drawings for a monthly publication for Dr. Lapsley and in his office at the Publication House. A.T. did not feel just right, not very well, and did what turned out to be a rather foolish thing. He could not work or think well and went up to fly his kite. Fortunately I went up with him. He got up on top of the elevator shaft section of the building, lost consciousness and fell off it on the roof side: otherwise it would have been six stories to the ground. I did not see him fall but ran to him. I had to get help and could not bear to see his head on the sharp pointed cinder? roof. I recalled seeing the flag hung over the banister through the open door & said out loud "oh, the flag"! Then after putting it under his head I ran down the steps of the elevator building to the top floor where I gave the notice and ran back to A.T. When she, the secretary, phoned the hospital which, was almost across the street she said that "a man has fallen off the elevator shaft". The doctor replied "well, he don't need me, he needs an ambulance or undertaker"! She got it straightened out and a doctor was soon over there, A.T. was regaining consciousness and everything was all right. One of the men who later drew the figures called "little jets" for S.S. publication, (I should recall his name) was most kind to go with me to supper that evening. I recall that I could not eat and he got me a fine piece of cantaloupe.
I have wondered if the man who made so much of the "little jets" as he called them, and became quite famous for them, if he got his idea from A.T. who had used them for his own work years before: his own idea and his own drawing. When he wanted to show people that they could use chalk even if unable to draw (as he did) he took his lecturers crayon which was an inch square by 3" long and made a series of figures. I recall many perpendicular, with the 1" crayon and say "that's a man. A man's an easy mark anyway." Then he would draw the figures seated, running, arms out, etc., to show the various ways the story could be illustrated.
Returning to the subject of falling off the elevator shaft. A.T. lost consciousness and fell off limp, so that in the comparative short fall, not even a bone was broken. The doctor found nothing wrong. We did not even know what had bit bilious as he had a tendency to that trouble.
At this time (A.T.,) A. Thomas Nelson made a box kite which he flew for amusement from the top of the Presbyterian Publishing House on 6th St., near Main: perhaps between Grace & Main Sts. I did have the address. The box kite looked so much like the open airplanes of that day, and being unable to tell it's size when at a distance in the air, it caused some quiet commotion. One morning a very genteel but strange man called where we were living at 318 E. Byrd St., near Gambols Hill Park. The house is now torn down. He was a Pinkerton man. While they did not think it was an enemy plane, munitions were being manufactured near by and they took no chances about checking and looking into the matter. He asked A.T. all sorts of questions so that he was certain about it when he left our place.
At. another time, Mr. Nelson was making drawings for a monthly publication for Dr. Lapsley and in his office at the Publication House. A.T. did not feel just right, not very well, and did what turned out to be a rather foolish thing. He could not work or think well and went up to fly his kite. Fortunately I went up with him. He got up on top of the elevator shaft section of the building, lost consciousness and fell off it on the roof side: otherwise it would have been six stories to the ground. I did not see him fall but ran to him. I had to get help and could not bear to see his head on the sharp pointed cinder? roof. I recalled seeing the flag hung over the banister through the open door & said out loud "oh, the flag"! Then after putting it under his head I ran down the steps of the elevator building to the top floor where I gave the notice and ran back to A.T. When she, the secretary, phoned the hospital which, was almost across the street she said that "a man has fallen off the elevator shaft". The doctor replied "well, he don't need me, he needs an ambulance or undertaker"! She got it straightened out and a doctor was soon over there, A.T. was regaining consciousness and everything was all right. One of the men who later drew the figures called "little jets" for S.S. publication, (I should recall his name) was most kind to go with me to supper that evening. I recall that I could not eat and he got me a fine piece of cantaloupe.
I have wondered if the man who made so much of the "little jets" as he called them, and became quite famous for them, if he got his idea from A.T. who had used them for his own work years before: his own idea and his own drawing. When he wanted to show people that they could use chalk even if unable to draw (as he did) he took his lecturers crayon which was an inch square by 3" long and made a series of figures. I recall many perpendicular, with the 1" crayon and say "that's a man. A man's an easy mark anyway." Then he would draw the figures seated, running, arms out, etc., to show the various ways the story could be illustrated.
Returning to the subject of falling off the elevator shaft. A.T. lost consciousness and fell off limp, so that in the comparative short fall, not even a bone was broken. The doctor found nothing wrong. We did not even know what had bit bilious as he had a tendency to that trouble.
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