{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"2505"},"altNumsArchivespace":{"label":"ArchiveSpace","value":["1998.10.16B","1998.10.16","1998.10.16A"]},"copyright":{"label":"Copyright","value":"The American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain."},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"Blanchard-Hill Collection, gift of M. Anne Hill and Edward V. Blanchard, Jr."},"endDate":{"label":"End Date","value":"1925"},"sortNumber":{"label":"Sort Number","value":"1998    10   16a    b"},"invno":{"label":"Accession number","value":"1998.10.16a,b"},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Ink, watercolor, pencil, collage on paper (double-sided)"},"geographyPlaceregion":{"label":"Place/Region","value":"Houston"},"media":{"label":"Media","value":[{"mediaURL":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/3166/full","mediaDepartment":"Object Photographs","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"3166"},{"mediaURL":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/3167/full","mediaDepartment":"Object Photographs","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"3167"}]},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"Flying Machines (4575: Broad Cutt) / Flying Machines (4576: Vogel)"},"geographyCity":{"value":"Houston"},"textEntriesWebsitedisplaytext":{"value":["Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.　To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org","WORK ON PAPER","The oeuvre of Charles Dellschau (born in 1830 in Prussia) proves witness to the profound break caused by the arrival of modernity at the beginning of the twentieth century, sealed by the consequences of the First World War. His earliest drawings and collages reflect the technological progress at the end of the nineteenth century: balloons and airplanes filling the sky\u2014an expression of man\u2019s desire to master heaven and earth. Dellschau, a retired butcher, closely followed various early aeronautical adventures, thanks to his subscriptions to several magazines and newspapers of the time (Scientific American, the Houston Daily Post, the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Press). From 1899 to 1922, he described and drew the story of a secret club of aeronauts (the Sonora Aero Club) that would have existed in California between 1850 and 1860. Dellschau claimed that he and other members of the club built, flew, and then dismantled at least two flying machines. In accordance with the club\u2019s rule of secrecy, Dellschau showed the drawings to no one outside his family. Flying Machine 4575, an ink drawing on a penciled grid, is what Dellschau termed a \u201cBroad Cutt\u201d\u2014a cross section that reveals the mechanics of the vessel. Dellschau\u2019s faith in technological progress was lost with the onset of the war, which saw the invention of both aerial and gas warfare. The photos and articles Dellschau glued onto his works possess real epic power; their narrative force is heightened by the interweaving of world history\u2014clippings about memorable events, mostly aeronautical exploits or disasters\u2014and Dellschau\u2019s autofiction.Valérie Rousseau, \u201cFlying Machines (4575: Broad Cutt/4576: Vogel),\u201d exhibition label for Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum. Stacy C. Hollander and Valérie Rousseau, curators. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2014.","In 1709, a Portuguese Jesuit wrote a \"Short Manifesto for those who are unaware that it is possible to sail through the element air.\" Life once rested on the four elements of earth, fire, water, and air. Maintaining balance among them was critical to health of body and mind; controlling an element was alchemy. The most insubstantial of these elements was air, unseen until the wind trembled leaves on a tree, or was felt as a breeze against the skin. Riding air, like a bird, was a dream that was explored generation after generation. Charles Dellschau had such dreams of flight. A Prussian immigrant, he arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1849, the year a French balloonist made the first flight over the Alps, and the Yankee polymath Rufus Porter published his pamphlet AERIAL NAVIGATION\u2014The Practicability of Traveling Pleasantly and Safely from New-York to California in Three Days.\" Dellschau\u2019s own occupation was the decidedly earthbound trade of butchering, but his soul yearned to soar. During the 1850s, Dellschau joined the throngs of hopefuls panning for gold in the west. He lived for a time in Sonora, California, where\u2014at least in his own imagination\u2014he became one of a league of extraordinary gentlemen, the Sonora Aero Club, dedicated to inventing, building, flying, and dismantling flying machines. From 1899 to 1922, Dellschau dedicated himself to chronicling the landmark innovations in flight that resulted from the work of this secret club, the lives of the inventors, their experiments, and other development in flight. In the model of such secret fraternal societies as the Freemasons, no one outside the members were privy to this work, and Dellschau conducted his documentation of pen, ink, and watercolor drawings\u2014many double-sided, collages, and clippings from various sources\u2014in absolute privacy outside his own family. These comprised three handwritten journals of \"Recolections\" [sic] and at least twelve extant volumes dating from 1908 to 1921 (after Dellschau retired), containing at least two thousand pages of heavily painted watercolor and ink drawings of \"aeros\" on heavy butcher paper. Each page of these bound volumes is numbered and contains a clipping from a daily newspaper\u2014what Dellschau called a \"press bloom,\" indicating there may have been about ten volumes that preceded those that survive. Many of the drawings are diagrammatic, offering explications of the mechanics of the flying machine, and further annotated with complex alphabetic codes. Often one side displays a cut-through view\u2014what Dellschau termed a \"Broad Cutt\"\u2014and the reverse contains an exterior rendering. This double-sided work shows Flying Machine 4575, with a clipping dated March 17, 1920, with the headline \"Flyer saves life by daring exploit.\" The broad cut reveals two aeronauts operating the aero and the mechanical workings of the flying machine. On the reverse, exterior view, an aeronaut peeps through a window of the colorfully striped aero. The aero is titled Vogel, which means \"bird\" in German, is numbered 4576, includes the words \"Maybe So,\" and the date of March 16, 1920, clipped from a newspaper.Stacy C. Hollander, \"Flying Machines (4575: Broad Cutt/ 4576: Vogel), c. 1920 (double-sided),\" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020. Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.　To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org","Charles A.A. Dellschau\u2019s aeronautic adventures may be inventions of his imagination with roots in reality. Chronicling the exploits of the Sonora Aero Club, purportedly active in California in the 1850s, Dellschau claimed that he and other members of the club built, flew, and then dismantled at least two flying machines. Although Dellschau did live in Sonora in the 1850s, no area newspapers report flying machines or any other activities of a Sonora Aero Club. Coincidentally, in 1849, Yankee artist and inventor Rufus Porter published his pamphlet AERIAL NAVIGATION\u2014The Practicability of Traveling Pleasantly and Safely from New-York to California in Three Days. Porter\u2019s early interest in human flight was achieved in 1852 when Henri Giffard made the first recorded powered and controlled flight from Paris to Trappes. Dellschau was born in Prussia and arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1849. He briefly joined the Gold Rush in California before returning to Texas and settling in Houston. After retirement he spent most of his time drawing, completing nearly one each day between 1908 and 1921. He usually bound the drawings, often doublesided, in large notebooks. On the exterior view is the word Vogel, which means \"bird\" in German.Stacy C. Hollander, \"Flying Machine 4575: Broad Cutt/Exterior (doublesided),\" exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012."]},"collections":{"label":"Collections","value":"Works on Paper"},"geography":{"label":"Geography","value":"Houston"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"153919"},"geographyState":{"value":"Texas"},"geographyCountry":{"value":"United States"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"people":{"label":"Artist / Maker","value":{"displayOrder":"1","personRole":"Artist","personID":"229","content":"Charles A. A. Dellschau"}},"classifications":{"label":"Classification(s)","value":"Drawings"},"textEntries":{"label":"Text Entries","value":["Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.　To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org","WORK ON PAPER","The oeuvre of Charles Dellschau (born in 1830 in Prussia) proves witness to the profound break caused by the arrival of modernity at the beginning of the twentieth century, sealed by the consequences of the First World War. His earliest drawings and collages reflect the technological progress at the end of the nineteenth century: balloons and airplanes filling the sky\u2014an expression of man\u2019s desire to master heaven and earth. Dellschau, a retired butcher, closely followed various early aeronautical adventures, thanks to his subscriptions to several magazines and newspapers of the time (Scientific American, the Houston Daily Post, the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Press). From 1899 to 1922, he described and drew the story of a secret club of aeronauts (the Sonora Aero Club) that would have existed in California between 1850 and 1860. Dellschau claimed that he and other members of the club built, flew, and then dismantled at least two flying machines. In accordance with the club\u2019s rule of secrecy, Dellschau showed the drawings to no one outside his family. Flying Machine 4575, an ink drawing on a penciled grid, is what Dellschau termed a \u201cBroad Cutt\u201d\u2014a cross section that reveals the mechanics of the vessel. Dellschau\u2019s faith in technological progress was lost with the onset of the war, which saw the invention of both aerial and gas warfare. The photos and articles Dellschau glued onto his works possess real epic power; their narrative force is heightened by the interweaving of world history\u2014clippings about memorable events, mostly aeronautical exploits or disasters\u2014and Dellschau\u2019s autofiction.Valérie Rousseau, \u201cFlying Machines (4575: Broad Cutt/4576: Vogel),\u201d exhibition label for Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum. Stacy C. Hollander and Valérie Rousseau, curators. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2014.","In 1709, a Portuguese Jesuit wrote a \"Short Manifesto for those who are unaware that it is possible to sail through the element air.\" Life once rested on the four elements of earth, fire, water, and air. Maintaining balance among them was critical to health of body and mind; controlling an element was alchemy. The most insubstantial of these elements was air, unseen until the wind trembled leaves on a tree, or was felt as a breeze against the skin. Riding air, like a bird, was a dream that was explored generation after generation. Charles Dellschau had such dreams of flight. A Prussian immigrant, he arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1849, the year a French balloonist made the first flight over the Alps, and the Yankee polymath Rufus Porter published his pamphlet AERIAL NAVIGATION\u2014The Practicability of Traveling Pleasantly and Safely from New-York to California in Three Days.\" Dellschau\u2019s own occupation was the decidedly earthbound trade of butchering, but his soul yearned to soar. During the 1850s, Dellschau joined the throngs of hopefuls panning for gold in the west. He lived for a time in Sonora, California, where\u2014at least in his own imagination\u2014he became one of a league of extraordinary gentlemen, the Sonora Aero Club, dedicated to inventing, building, flying, and dismantling flying machines. From 1899 to 1922, Dellschau dedicated himself to chronicling the landmark innovations in flight that resulted from the work of this secret club, the lives of the inventors, their experiments, and other development in flight. In the model of such secret fraternal societies as the Freemasons, no one outside the members were privy to this work, and Dellschau conducted his documentation of pen, ink, and watercolor drawings\u2014many double-sided, collages, and clippings from various sources\u2014in absolute privacy outside his own family. These comprised three handwritten journals of \"Recolections\" [sic] and at least twelve extant volumes dating from 1908 to 1921 (after Dellschau retired), containing at least two thousand pages of heavily painted watercolor and ink drawings of \"aeros\" on heavy butcher paper. Each page of these bound volumes is numbered and contains a clipping from a daily newspaper\u2014what Dellschau called a \"press bloom,\" indicating there may have been about ten volumes that preceded those that survive. Many of the drawings are diagrammatic, offering explications of the mechanics of the flying machine, and further annotated with complex alphabetic codes. Often one side displays a cut-through view\u2014what Dellschau termed a \"Broad Cutt\"\u2014and the reverse contains an exterior rendering. This double-sided work shows Flying Machine 4575, with a clipping dated March 17, 1920, with the headline \"Flyer saves life by daring exploit.\" The broad cut reveals two aeronauts operating the aero and the mechanical workings of the flying machine. On the reverse, exterior view, an aeronaut peeps through a window of the colorfully striped aero. The aero is titled Vogel, which means \"bird\" in German, is numbered 4576, includes the words \"Maybe So,\" and the date of March 16, 1920, clipped from a newspaper.Stacy C. Hollander, \"Flying Machines (4575: Broad Cutt/ 4576: Vogel), c. 1920 (double-sided),\" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020. Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.　To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org","Charles A.A. Dellschau\u2019s aeronautic adventures may be inventions of his imagination with roots in reality. Chronicling the exploits of the Sonora Aero Club, purportedly active in California in the 1850s, Dellschau claimed that he and other members of the club built, flew, and then dismantled at least two flying machines. Although Dellschau did live in Sonora in the 1850s, no area newspapers report flying machines or any other activities of a Sonora Aero Club. Coincidentally, in 1849, Yankee artist and inventor Rufus Porter published his pamphlet AERIAL NAVIGATION\u2014The Practicability of Traveling Pleasantly and Safely from New-York to California in Three Days. Porter\u2019s early interest in human flight was achieved in 1852 when Henri Giffard made the first recorded powered and controlled flight from Paris to Trappes. Dellschau was born in Prussia and arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1849. He briefly joined the Gold Rush in California before returning to Texas and settling in Houston. After retirement he spent most of his time drawing, completing nearly one each day between 1908 and 1921. He usually bound the drawings, often doublesided, in large notebooks. On the exterior view is the word Vogel, which means \"bird\" in German.Stacy C. Hollander, \"Flying Machine 4575: Broad Cutt/Exterior (doublesided),\" exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012."]},"beginDate":{"label":"Begin Date","value":"1915"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"c. 1920"},"exhibitions":{"label":"Exhibitions","value":[{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - Sunday, October 7, 2012","exhibitionEndISODate":"2012-10-07","exhibitionID":"151","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2012-06-20","exhibitionBeginDate":"2012","exhibitionTitle":"COMPASS: Folk Art in Four Directions","exhibitionEndDate":"2012"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Tuesday, January 17, 2012 - Sunday, September 2, 2012","exhibitionEndISODate":"2012-09-02","exhibitionID":"149","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2012-01-17","exhibitionBeginDate":"2012","exhibitionTitle":"JUBILATION an act of rejoicing | RUMINATION an act of contemplation","exhibitionEndDate":"2012"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Wednesday, September 27, 2017 - Thursday, February 8, 2018","exhibitionEndISODate":"2018-02-08","exhibitionID":"214","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2017-09-27","exhibitionBeginDate":"2017","exhibitionTitle":"Highlights from Self-Taught Genius","exhibitionEndDate":"2018"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Tuesday, February 11, 2020 - Sunday, January 3, 2021","exhibitionEndISODate":"2021-01-03","exhibitionID":"239","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2020-02-11","exhibitionBeginDate":"2020","exhibitionTitle":"American Perspectives","exhibitionEndDate":"2021"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Thursday, July 11, 2002 - Sunday, January 5, 2003","exhibitionEndISODate":"2003-01-26","exhibitionID":"73","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2002-07-11","exhibitionBeginDate":"2002","exhibitionTitle":"American Anthem","exhibitionEndDate":"2003"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - Sunday, August 17, 2014","exhibitionEndISODate":"2014-08-17","exhibitionID":"171","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2014-05-13","exhibitionBeginDate":"2014","exhibitionTitle":"Self-Taught Genius","exhibitionEndDate":"2014"}]},"altNums":{"label":"Alternative Numbers","value":["1998.10.16B","1998.10.16","1998.10.16A"]},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"Sheet: 17 x 17 1/2 \" (43.2 x 44.5 cm)Frame: 29 x 26 7/8 x 2 \" (73.7 x 68.3 x 5.1 cm)"}}]}