LINDBERGH (Anne, 1906-2001, pioneering American Aviator, author, and wife of CHARLES, 1902-1974, American Aviator, First to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic in 1927)

Fine and attractive photograph by The Misses Selby, New York, signed, inscribed and dated 'For Elsie Whateley from Anne Lindbergh', showing her seated, three quarter length, almost full face, with her son Charles Augustus on her knee, (born 22nd June 1930, kidnapped 1st March 1932), she is looking down to show him something with its cover turned back, he is in a little shirt and shorts, holding a ball, his attention caught by something to the left, Mrs Lindbergh is in a print dress with short flounced sleeves, 6¼" x 6¼" circle in margins 7¾" x 7¼", June

The Lindberghs were married in 1929 and Charles jr was born on 22nd June 1930. Elsie Whateley and her husband Ollie, both from England, joined the household as cook and butler. On the night of the kidnapping, Ollie and Lindbergh searched the woods round the house, and Anne, Elsie, and Betty Gow the nursemaid, all the rooms and closets. Charlie's body was not found in the woods near Hopewell till 12th May 1932.
The police focused solely on Richard Hauptmann as alleged kidnapper, insisting that there was only one set of foot prints, even though a second had been found leading away from the house. So at Hauptmann's trial, 2nd January - 13th February 1935, his counsel, Edward J. Reilly, could only advance the theory that the kidnapping was 'an inside job'. The three women were closely cross-examined, the nursemaid most of all. Elsie testified that the shirt found on Charlie was the one they had put on him the night he had disappeared.
Following the guilty verdict, Hauptmann appealed (2nd May 1935). Anne wrote to her mother saying that Elsie had not been back to England since Ollie had died, and that she wished to go home. Elsie in fact was Anne's last immediate contact with her son and this photograph, taken at most a few months before the kidnapping, will have been a gift at this time.


Item Date:  1935

Stock No:  53329      £4750

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