The Queen City Welcomes Charles Lindbergh: The Famed Aviator's Visit Documented in Black and White

Charles A. Lindbergh, an obscure twenty-five-year-old airmail pilot, gained international celebrity as the first aviator to cross the Atlantic Ocean nonstop from New York to Paris. He made the successful crossing on May 20–21, 1927, flying solo in a single-engine Ryan monoplane nicknamed the Spirit of St. Louis in a little over thirty-three hours. When Lindbergh landed in Paris, his life had changed forever. Crowds mobbed his plane even before it had come to a stop. People rushed forward to get a glimpse of the daring American aviator and his plane. Lindbergh was virtually pulled out of his plane and carried around by the cheering crowd.

After a few brief flights in Europe in the Spirit, Lindbergh returned to the United States, where he received a medal from President Calvin Coolidge in Washington, DC, followed by a ticker-tape parade in New York City. The adulation of Lindbergh and the desire to see him in person and to hear him speak was just getting started.

The Spirit of St. Louis at Lunken Field, August 6, 1927.

CMC PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis at Lunken Field, August 6, 1927.

CMC PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

Lindbergh was not comfortable with the limelight, but he was interested in promoting aviation and realized he had an opportunity to do that by using his newfound fame. Lindbergh and Harry Guggenheim, the millionaire philanthropist whom he had met before his successful New York to Paris flight, conceived of a national air tour in the Spirit of St. Louis. With the financial backing of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, Lindbergh agreed to visit at least one city in each of the forty-eight states. Starting on July 20, 1927, and continuing through October 23, 1927, Lindbergh and the Spirit visited 82 cities and covered some 22,000 air miles in over 260 hours of flying. Lindbergh, never comfortable in front of a crowd, gave 147 speeches during the tour and rode approximately 1,290 miles in parades.¹

The tour itinerary included stops at three cities in Ohio: Cleveland, Dayton, and Cincinnati. Once a Cincinnati stop was set, the Chamber of Commerce formed a Committee of Arrangements, which began working out the local details. There was much excitement in the Queen City at the prospect of a visit by the renowned aviator and his equally famous aircraft. The Committee of Arrangements made preparations for Lindbergh to land at Lunken Field and be conveyed by motorcade to a public reception at Redland Field. The committee arranged for a section of the grandstands to be reserved specifically for children, because "the children of today will be the aeronaut of the future."²

Col. C. O. Sherrill, Cincinnati city manager, assigned four hundred special policemen and about two hundred uniformed firemen to handle the expected large crowd at the ballpark and to prevent spectators from rushing the air hero upon his arrival. The Committee of Arrangements delegated the Boy Scouts of Cincinnati to act as Lindbergh's personal guard.³

The chamber's civic secretary, Howard M. Wilson, conferred with Lindbergh and his tour manager on Friday, August 5, in Dayton, Ohio, to iron out the final details of his arrival in Cincinnati the next day. Lindbergh was particularly pleased when Wilson informed him that ten thousand school children were expected to greet him at Redland Field. It was agreed that there would be no ceremony at Lunken Field other than a handshake and greeting from Vice Mayor Stanley Matthews as the aviator climbed out of his plane. Lindbergh would be transferred at once to a waiting automobile for the procession to the ballpark. He insisted to Wilson that for safety reasons no other airplanes be flying in the vicinity of Lunken Field when he arrived. Wilson assured him that no planes would be in the air after noon that day until he landed safely.⁴