The earliest memorabilia in the collection relate to the Wright brothers: (1) a butterfly toy purported by Carruthers to have been given to them by their father and to have inspired their interest in flight; and (2) a small piece of the brothers' first hangar in Kitty Hawk, mounted on a printed "Birthday Greetings and Souvenir of ..." card issued by Lester D. Gardner (publisher of the early periodical Aviation, later an officer in the Army Air Service in World War I, and founder of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences) in 1948, and inscribed from pioneer aviator Walter R. Brookins to Dr. Carruthers. Other memorabilia include a German autograph album containing signatures dating from September 1895 to May 1902, including those of Ferdinand Graf Zeppelin and other members of the Zeppelin family; a pictorial souvenir of the 1910 Brussels Exhibition; a piece of fabric from an early Curtiss airplane; two metal pieces from Charles A. Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis"; a holograph postcard of the "Spirit of St. Louis" issued in 1969; four bookmarks made from fabric of the balloon "Explorer II", which attained the world's altitude record of 72,395 feet, on November 11, 1935; and two first day covers of the First Man on the Moon U.S. 10› stamp, with postmarks "Moon Landing USA Jul 20 1969" and "Washington. DC Sep 9 1969".