Book: "The Spirit Behind the Spirit of St. Louis" by Benjamin Barrett

Local author and friend of the Museum Benjamin C. Barrett tells the story of his grandfather's experience in the aviation industry in The Spirit Behind the Spirit of St. Louis (The Troy Book Makers, 2018). Includes a copy signed by the author: the perfect gift for any history buff, particularly one interested in aviation and transportation. 

"Explore the history of aviation through the eyes of Harold Bixby (1890-1965), including ballooning, the 1923 International Air Races in St. Louis, early air mail, Bixby’s relationship with Charles Lindbergh and Lindbergh’s famous solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Bixby’s pioneering years in China in the 1930s establishing the first air mail and passenger routes with the China National Aviation Corp., a subsidiary of Pan American Airways, and the preparations for the first trans-Pacific flight in the China Clipper in 1935. 

Bixby was active in aviation as a technical advisor well after his retirement as PAA vice-president in 1955. In his later years, conservation efforts in Florida absorbed him including working with J.N. “Ding” Darling in establishing the Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island and in efforts to control erosion on Captiva Island, his winter home."