File:SoSL Fabric 1927.jpg

English: Small piece of the fine linen fabric painted silver from the Spirit of St. Louis from a larger piece presented by Charles Lindbergh to the Belgian Ambassador to France in Paris, May, 1927.

Source: The Cooper Collection of Lindberghiana

Provenance: The small piece of fabric is attached to the face of a calling card by means of a 1927 "Lindbergh Air Mail" U.S. postage stamp (C-10) and is stamped on the reverse with the seal of the Belgian Embassy in Paris, a second stamp reading "L'Ambassadeur de Belgique á Paris", and the signature of the Ambassador. The calling card is that of Albert Arnould, Directeur de la Scene du Theatre Marginy, Paris, and has a handwritten inscription that the fabric came from "l'avion Spirit of St. Louis de Lindbergh" and the date "Juin 1927".

The fabric covering of the Spirit (from which this example came) had been badly damaged by souvenir hunters when the monoplane was enveloped by thousands of enthusiastic Parisians immediately after it landed at Le Bourget. Much of this covering therefore had to be replaced before Lindbergh flew the Spirit on to Evere Aerodrome in Brussels, Belgium, a week later on May 28, Croydon Aerodrome in London, England, on May 29, and Gosport, England, on May 31. There it was dismantled and loaded on the US Navy light cruiser USS Memphis which took Lindbergh and the Spirit back to the United States where the plane was reassembled at Bolling Field in Washington, D.C.., from which it made its next flight to New York on June 16th.