Studio Portrait of Z. Smith Reynolds

Datecirca 1928

MediumPhotograph

Credit LineReynolda House Museum of American Art Archives

CopyrightPublic Domain

Object number39-2134-026

DescriptionThe youngest child of R.J. and Katharine Reynolds, Zachary Smith Reynolds (1911-1932) won fame as a stunt pilot, rubbed elbows with celebrity pilots, married twice, and completed the world’s longest point-to-point solo flight. Three of the four Reynolds children learned to fly, but Smith and his older brother Dick became utterly absorbed by the sporting and business potential of aviation. The newspapers advertised Smith’s performances in “flying circuses” and reported on the record-breaking speed of his 1930 flight from New York to Los Angeles. Smith’s greatest achievement in the air was a 17,000-mile solo journey from London to Hong Kong in 1931-1932. Later that year, while living at Reynolda, Smith died from a single gunshot wound to the head. He was twenty years old.
ProvenanceHistoric Photographs Collection created when Reynolda House Museum of American Art established its Archives in 1993.

Status

Not on view

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