click zoom to display a high-res image
Pesticide Spraying
Image
Loading an airplane with calcium arsenate in order to spray for the hemlock looper pest in Peninsula State Park. This is believed to be the first such use of aviation. Little is known about pilot Les Smith whose name appears under the rear seat, but he seems to have lived the rootless life typical of many young pilots during the 1920s and 1930s. We do know that he flew charters for Midwest Air Transport out of Madison and that he became an airmail pilot with Northwest Airways. Other photographs of this plane suggest Smith was also associated with the Decatur Aircraft Company in Illinois.
1925
Publication Information
Physical Description
Collection Information
Copyright Information
W012PHD
WHi 10989
Image
Digital Collections
Explore more than 100,000 collection items online through the Society’s digital collections. For over two decades, we’ve been scanning, photographing, and digitizing materials from our collections, creating a rich and growing digital archive that brings history closer to you.
The Wisconsin Historical Society offers an ever-growing digital collection. Digitized materials reflect the full range of items in the collections including photographs, letters, newsletters, films, posters, architectural drawings, menus, and ephemera.
Attribution
For a credit line: Wisconsin Historical Society, Creator, Title, Unique Identifier.
The Unique Identifier can be found at the top or bottom of the page for each item. The name of a downloaded file is NOT the unique identifier.
For bibliographic citations please consult the UW-Madison Libraries Citation Research Guide to ensure compliance with appropriate style guidelines.
Accessing Collections
The vast majority of the items in our collections are not online. The Society owns thousands of archival collections viewable in our Archives reading room. To view and conduct research in our collections, visit us in person.
Northwest Airways Air Mail Delivery
July 1, 1933
A Northwest Airways crew delivers a bag of airmail to Madison postmaster W.A. Devine. With him, posed in front of the Ford TriMotor, are pilots Elmer Wahl (left) and Lee Smith. A passenger can be s...
Air Mail Begins
November 22, 1927
Souvenir envelope mailed by John A. Lester on the flight that inaugurated air mail service between Madison and Minneapolis in 1927. Madison's first incoming airmail consignment from Chicago and Mil...
Speed Holmen
1928
Charles "Speed" Holman and Ed Ballough, the Laird Team, after the New York to Los Angeles air race. Minnesotan Charles Holman earned his nickname by racing motorcycles, but in 1919 he discovered av...
Calcium Chloride Surfacing
1925
Applying calcium chloride to the surface of STH 19 in Dane County. Unpaved roads stabilized with calcium chloride produced less dust, although that type of dust control required regular patrol ope...
Pilot "Cash" Chamberlain
1929
Commercial pilot C.B. "Cash" Chamberlain posed with a Hamilton Metalplane owned by Universal Airlines. Chamberlain began his flying career with the Walter Liskowitz airline company of Waukesha. Lat...
Will Rogers in Airplane
August 15, 1935
Caption with negative: "Immediately after Post and Rogers landed with Pilot Chet McLean of Anchorage, with Post in the front seat with the pilot. Chief Pilot Joe Crosson of the Pacific Alaska Airwa...
