For immediate release:

Contact:
Kristin Aguilera
Museum of American Financial History
Communications Director
212-908-4695
kaguilera@financialhistory.org

Finance Museum Celebrates Centennial of Flight
With Pan Am Exhibition

New York City, June 9, 2003 -- Tomorrow, the Museum of American Financial History will unveil “Pan Am and the Golden Age of Air Travel,” an exhibition featuring artifacts, photographs and original documents from Pan American Airways – a pioneer in air travel. The exhibit will coincide with the centennial anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first successful flight.

“Pan Am and the Golden Age of Air Travel” will focus on Pan Am’s clipper period, from 1935 through 1946, when it became an airline of firsts including the first American airline to fly to foreign destinations, the first to institute round-the-world service, the first to employ flight stewards, the first to serve meals aboard, and the first to show full-length movies.

Exhibit highlights include vintage route maps, advertisements, signage, postcards, brochures, a pilot’s jacket, and a collection of handwritten correspondence from a Pan Am advertising manager to his fiancée including his South American itinerary from 1941-1942. Financial documents, such as Pan Am stock certificates and annual reports, will also be featured.

The Museum of American Financial History, an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is the nation’s only independent public museum dedicated to the history of growth, opportunity, and entrepreneurship in our democratic free market economy. The Museum serves members, visitors to its gallery and website, and program participants nationwide with exhibits, events, publications, and scholarly resources. Educational programming promotes financial literacy and empowerment, drawing upon the Museum’s unsurpassed document collection.

“Pan Am and the Golden Age of Air Travel” will be on display alongside “The Nobel Prize: Celebrating 100 Years of Creativity and Innovation” in the Museum gallery at 28 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. It will run through December 31, 2003. Admission is $2.

Photography: To request high resolution images of objects in this exhibit, please e-mail kaguilera@financialhistory.org, or call 212-908-4695.

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