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This meeting will be Hybrid with members in the clubhouse and on Zoom.

On its first North America trip of 1937, German zeppelin LZ-129 Hindenburg burst into flames while landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on a rainy evening. It suffered total destruction in 34 seconds. The disaster took 36 lives and destroyed most of the 17,000+ pieces of mail aboard. Less than 400 pieces of mail survived, of which half remained unburnt in a sealed container.

The May 6 Hindenburg disaster was the first aerial tragedy captured on film. The next day, the newsreels were in theaters and newspaper headlines reached Europe. A “perfect storm” moment, when a spark ignited loose hydrogen mixed with oxygen, has been debated ever since to determine the cause.

On September 23 at the Collectors Club, Cheryl Ganz will talk about Hindenburg’s important role in bridging continents with the first, regularly scheduled North Atlantic airmail service, the disaster, survivor experiences, the handling of salvaged mail, and collector investigations. Her stories are the result of studying this mail for over 50 years.

Publications

•       U.S. Zeppelin and Airship Mail Flights (USA: 2021, 2022).
•       with Daniel Grossman and Patrick Russell, Zeppelin Hindenburg: An Illustrated History of LZ-129 (History Press, London, 2017, 2019).
•       Every Stamp Tells a Story: The National Philatelic Collection (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press and Random House, 2014).
•       Pacific Exchange: China & U.S. Mail (Washington: Smithsonian National Postal Museum, 2014).
•       Favorite Finds, (Washington: Smithsonian National Postal Museum, 2013).
•       with Daniel Piazza, Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic (Washington: Smithsonian National Postal Museum, 2012).
•       with Daniel Piazza, Delivering Hope: FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression (Washington: Smithsonian National Postal Museum, 2009).
•       The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair: A Century of Progress (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008).
•       Social and Historical Research through Postal History, APS Stamp Chat panel, APS Stamp Chat: Social & Historical Research Through Philately: A Panel Discussion with Dr. Cheryl Ganz, Trish Kaufmann, and Marjory Sente (stamps.org), February 23, 2021.
•       Zeppelin LZ-129 Hindenburg’s Onboard Post Office, Royal Philatelic Society London, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd-Js32pmKc&feature=youtu.be, September 10, 2020.

This meeting will be Hybrid with members in the clubhouse and on Zoom.

Register Now