66

F. Trubee Davison.

Boyhood diary of the future aviator, including a meeting with Wilbur Wright.

Various places, 21 August to 17 October [1908]
[49] manuscript diary pages, signed "T. Davison" at end, with a few pages dictated to a family member, plus [4] pages of memoranda at rear. 12mo, original limp calf, worn; minimal wear to diary contents.

Frederick Trubee Davison (1896-1974) was an affluent 12-year-old from Locust Valley, NY when he wrote this diary on family vacation. He went on to an impressive and wide-ranging career in public service: he founded America's first naval air reserve unit while at Yale in 1916, was the Assistant Secretary of War for Air, served in the New York Legislature, and was the first personnel director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this juvenile diary, we see his first exposure to aviation, using an introduction from an ambassador to meet Wilbur Wright at his famous demonstration grounds in Le Mans, France. 

Davison kept this diary while on a grand tour of Europe with his family. His father Henry Pomeroy Davison Sr. was a prominent banker who would soon become a partner in JP Morgan & Company. The family visited London, Germany, Switzerland, France, and then back to England. While in London, "we took a cab to Mr. J.P. Morgan's country place in Roehampton. We had tea there, and thought the gardens and the house were very beautiful" (30 August). On returning to London on 9 October, "we went to the Franco British exhibition which was very wonderful. There was a village of Africans that had been brought here by the French. They dressed in their naïve costume, built their own houses and lived their own way." This "Senegalese village" has not fared well in history; the London Museum's website describes it as "clearly symbolic of a racist, exploitative imperial society." At Oxford on October 10, he noted "some boys playing football which is very different than ours"—still a common source of befuddlement by Americans. The family visited J.P. Morgan's London townhouse at 13 Prince's Gate on October 13, providing a long description of the art collection. "Mr. Morgan has a great deal of sentiment and as the house belonged to his father he does not like to have it changed from the way his father left it." 

Most notable is the 30 September entry which presages Davison's aviation career: "We left Paris in an auto with Mr. Porter (a friend of father's) for Le Mans, where Mr. Wilbur Wright was doing wonderful work with an aeroplane. . . . The field is about 15 k this side of Le Mans. We saw 20,000 people there to watch Mr. Wright fly, but he could not as his motor was being repaired. We had a letter from the Ambassador to Mr. Wright, so we were allowed to see the aeroplane, which was very simple." The next day, "we returned to Le Mans for lunch. After lunch we went to the Leon Bollée factory where Mr. Wright was. We met Mr. Wright there and saw his motor. We also learned that he could not fly, so we started for Paris." Wright had begun the first series of public demonstrations of his airplane in Le Mans the previous month.

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