On December 1, 1928 Professor J.H. Pound went up in an airplane.

Remember Pound? He’s come up here twice before, both times in connection with aviation. It’s been rattling around in my head for some time that somewhere I had seen a photo of him standing in front of an airplane. Today, for some utterly unknown reason, I decided it was time to find that picture. It took pretty much all afternoon, but find it I did:

That’s Pound on the far right. I have no clue who any of the others are. I don’t know their location. And I’m clueless about the plane. But here’s the thing–while they were up, they took pictures. There are a couple of the Rice campus from 2,000 feet, which are nice but not remarkable:

But the other two pictures just blew my mind. They flew over to the ship channel and the turning basin and got these amazing images of Houston industry in 1928:

 

That’s what us historians call context, baby.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to On December 1, 1928 Professor J.H. Pound went up in an airplane.

  1. Ann Pound Hopkins says:

    I was so excited to read your article on my grandfather, Joseph H Pound. How surprised I was to learn about it this afternoon. Since my grandmother was in the first graduating class we have quite a few nice pictures that he took. If I can help with any other information from that time, please let me know.

    • Melissa Kean says:

      Thanks so much for writing! I’m really glad you liked the article–your grandfather is one of my favorites among the early Rice faculty. He seems to have been both generally cheerful and curious about absolutely everything. I would really love to see the pictures he took and hear more about him. You can email me at kean@rice.edu any time.

  2. Pingback: A Parking Lot Meeting Yields Traces of Love | Rice History Corner

Leave a Reply