Hassell & Cramer with the Greater Rockford and a Large Crowd in Canada.

Hassell & Cramer with the Greater Rockford and a Large Crowd in Canada.

A large group of well-wishers stand and sit before the Greater Rockford airplane on a field in Cochrane, Ontario. The plane's pilots stand on either side of a propeller, Parker "Shorty" Cramer on the left and Bert "Fish" Hassell on the right. The caption from Hassell's autobiography, A Viking with Wings (1987, p. 78) reads, "All of Cochrane, Ontario turned out to greet the Rockford-to-Stockholm fliers at their first refueling stop. Cochrane had no airport then, but townspeople, directed by Shorty Cramer's brother, Bill, scraped out a runway just for The Greater Rockford." Handwritten notation on the back states, "Cochrane Ontario 1928. Stayed there for 3 days due to rain. Finally the weather broke & they took off. The entire city came to see them off."

1928-08

Midway Village Museum

jpeg

Still Image

2006.17.916

Photograph

6.5" x 8.5"