The bulk of this series consists of sheet music of songs with aeronautical themes. The remainder consists of photographic reproductions of sheet music covers, also of songs with aeronautical themes, taken from originals then in the Alden S. Condict Collection; the present whereabouts of this collection are unknown. The earliest materials--Go Not, Happy Day (1876; sheet music) and Dawn of the Century March & Two Step (1900; cover)--make no mention of aviation in their lyrics, but their covers include illustrations of balloons. The bulk of the collection, dating from 1909 to 1950 and-with the exception of the British Four Songs of the Air Service (1918)--all written for the American popular market, evidence the hold of the airplane on the American public imagination in that period, in particular the years prior to the US entry into World War I in 1917 (22 items). In addition, five items from 1927 (including Lucky Lindy! by L. Wolfe Gilbert and Abel Baer) celebrate Charles A. Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, and two items from 1938 the exploits of Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan. Four songs written during World War II praise the contribution of the air services to the US war effort. The latest item is Song of the Air Force (1950), by the pioneer aviator Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes, inscribed by the author to Dr. Carruthers, and signed by Maj. Charles E. "Chet" Yaeger.