REAR ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 10/10/1926 - HFSID 33559

RICHARD E. BYRD
Five months after returning from the North Pole, he has to postpone a lecture before the Explorers' Club.
TLS: "R.E. Byrd", 1p, 8½x11. Boston, Mass., 1926 October 10. To his lecture agent, James B. Pond, New York. In full: "No, I believe that I would rather not lecture at Ithica (sic) as you suggested---I am sorry. Will you please put the lecture before the Explorers' Club off, until after January first. What with work in connection with the tour of the Josephine Ford, and other activities which I have had to engage in, I have been tremendously on the go, and I would prefer putting off the Explorers' Club lecture until later on. Please ask Miss Smith not to bother about engaging rooms at hotels for me, and if she has engaged any, to please cancel the engagements." Five months before, on May 9, 1926, BYRD AND FLOYD BENNETT BECAME THE FIRST TO FLY OVER THE NORTH POLE, for which both were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Scholars have raised questions about whether or not Byrd actually reached the North Pole but all have agreed Byrd thought he had reached the North Pole. The flight had been funded, in part, by business leaders including Vincent Astor, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Rodman Wanamaker and Edsel Ford. Byrd named his plane Josephine Ford (mentioned in this letter) in honor of Ford's daughter. After the flight, Byrd was promoted to Commander and there was an outpouring of public support for his proposed expeditions to Antarctica. The first, funded by the National Geographic Society as well as private donations, took place 1928-1930; the second in 1933-1935. In 1929, Byrd established the "Little America" Antarctic base, and on November 28-29, 1929, he and three others crossed the South Pole in a 1,600-mile airplane flight. On Byrd's second Antarctic expedition, he discovered Marie Byrd Land and the Edsel Ford Mountains. The polar explorer made three additional Antarctic expeditions through 1956. Lightly creased. Upper left and lower right corners missing. Pencil file note at left margin (unknown hand). Overall, fine condition.