gasballoon

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

And this about Leo Stevens, balloonist here in the 1906 NYT: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F0DE6D81F3DE633A... And here (1906): query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A05E7D6103EE733A... See other L. Stevens image here: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2163757324/

We'll add Steven's complete name to the source catalog and reload the description. Thanks!

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:

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 the John Wanamaker (now Macy's) store in Philadelphia. The statue of William Penn atop City Hall can be seen behind the balloon.

No, this is the John Wanamaker store at Broadway and Tenth Avenue in New York City. The balloon was launched from the rooftop here on July 8, 1911. It intended to go to Philadelphia, but got lost in fog, and ended up in West Nyack. The New York Times ran a story on July 9, 1911: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9506E0D71431E233A... Another Bain/LOC photo of the Wanamaker balloon: And another: Balloonist Leo Stevens in the basket of the Wanamaker balloon:

Wystan: Thanks for pointing us to the story of the Wanamaker balloon. We'll add the location and date to the description next time we update the record.

The picture was taken at Broadway and Tenth Street in Manhattan and in the background is the tallest building in New York City at the time, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, built in 1909. This gives us the direction that the photographer is pointing. He was looking Northeast up Broadway.

I would like to find info on the correct birthdate for Leo Stevens. Many sources give 1876-1877 but that can't be right. Would also like to verify the dates of his two marriages, the first to Julia (ca 1897), and the second to Laura (ca 1925). Thx. Allen allenametATaol.com