ballooning

This must be circa 1890.

Between 1910 and 1915 took place only two manned free balloon flights in Mexico City, both in early 1914: On the Sunday, January 25, the mexican aviation pioneer Alberto Braniff Ricard (1885-1966) and the french technician Jules Dubois flew on a 2,200 m3 Gordon Bennett hydrogen-filled balloon just brought from France by Braniff himself. They took off from a Braniff's plot beside the former Colonia Railway Station (Estación Colonia) near the Paseo de la Reforma avenue (the balloon in the photograph seems to be above this place). As a Braniff´s guest were aboard the legendary mexican ballooning pioneer Joaquín de la Cantolla y Rico (1829-1914), at that time already an elder man, who would die three days later. The second flight took off on the Saturday, January 31, in the same place and on the same Gordon Bennett balloon manned by Braniff and Dubois. Alberto Braniff short biographies: www.jorgecornish.com/Braniff.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Braniff A photograph showing Alberto Braniff in the company of Pascual Orozco, Francisco Villa and Giuseppe Garibaldi (grandson of the italian hero): www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2162707307/ www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=22081777 Braniff´s balloon taking off from the vicinity of the former Colonia Railway Station (photograph): img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=volar05ht1.jpg Braniff´s balloon taking off as was seen from the Cuauhtémoc Memorial (photograph): www.jorgecornish.com/images/Braniff_8.jpg From left to right: Cantolla, Braniff and Dubois aboard on the Alberto Braniff's balloon basket (photograph): img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=volar04av5.jpg Joaquín de la Cantolla inaccurate short biographies (in spanish): www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/notas/3843-En-tiempos-de-Can... www.uaq.mx/fcps/tribuna/343/opi07.htm Book review on a novel about Cantolla (in spanish): www.proscritos.com/larevista/notas.asp?num=51&d=t&...

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Tenochtitlán Siglo XXI (Ciudad de México), and we'd love to have this added to the group!

This is likely to be Professional balloon & airship pilot/stunt man Albert Leo "Prince Leo" Stevens. Look for his full list of accomplishments at www.ballooninghistory.com/whoswho/who'swho-s2.html

Given the date, this is perhaps taken on the roof of Wanamaker's - we see images elsewhere in the set. One wonders what the goal of that day's flight was.

I started an entry in Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Leo_Stevens This is at Broadway and Tenth Street in Manhattan at Wanamaker's BALLOON SETS SAIL FOR PHILADELPHIA; Passes Above Times Square, Gets Lost in a Jersey Fog Bank, and Lands at West Nyack. July 9, 1911, Sunday A large balloon with two men in the basket arose from the roof of the Wanamaker store at Broadway and Tenth Street at 6 o'clock last night, sailed leisurely across the city, up Seventh Avenue to Times Square, and then floated off across the Hudson and was lost in the haze that hung over Weehawken.

Another Bain/LOC photo of Stevens in the basket of the Wanamaker balloon:

Filling the balloon, on the roof of the New York City Wanamaker department store:

Oh, my! Are there more photos from this event? I’d love to see more.

plaisanter~ Only one or two, I'm afraid. None with an airborne balloon and this was the most exciting of the attempt to inflate it...