Unpublished photographs by Alberto Santos Dumont (1904)

Alberto Santos Dumont pilots his airship number 7 during the Deutsch award.

• Two large original and unpublished photographs by Alberto Santos Dumont.
• The two photographs were pasted on rigid paper, front and back, by the photographer (unidentified).
• 29 cm x 23 cm.
• Paris, Parc des Coteaux de Longchamps, 1904.
• Good state.
• Unique piece.

French subtitles

1a : Prix Deutsch - Le Santos Dumont N7 at Parc des Coteaux de Longchamps, le départ, lâchez tout !

1b : Prix Deutsch - Le Santos Dumont N7 at Parc des Coteaux de Longchamps, ésais au départ.

How many tries does it take to make a genius? For all those who believe that the qualities of a prodigy are innate, and that the person who has been fortunate enough to have them will not need to make more efforts throughout their life, Alberto Santos Dumont is proof that the real path of those who have marked their name in story is quite different. In fact, genius has another synonym: resilience. The father of aviation, before the famous flight on the 14-bis, designed no less than 13 other models of his “flying machines”, many of them with private stories.

This is the case of his airship “Nº 7”, a fast aircraft, which was created to compete for aviation prizes at the 1904 Universal Exhibition, but which never came into combat due to sabotage. Reports from the time record: “Two days later, when it was unfolded for the first inflation, it was discovered that the canvas had been lacerated along its entire length. The perpetrator of the crime (is he a psychopath?) will never worry about the police.” The mystery was never solved and the sad end of the airship, before it could even take flight, makes the large, and most likely unpublished, photos of No. 7 even more valuable.

But who would be capable of such an atrocity against a man who sought nothing more than the progress of humanity? Doubt still hangs in the air, and the search for answers encourages creativity. At the beginning of the 20th century, Santos Dumont was recognized and admired in Paris, and it is certain that with such admiration would also come enemies. Could it have been another inventor who sabotaged Dumont's airship? Perhaps some of the other competitors at the 1904 Universal Exhibition? It must be borne in mind that such an event was a milestone in the history of global technological development, and the award in question, finally, was nothing less than marking one's name in History.

In the years leading up to the First World War, humanity witnessed a technological leap that impacts our lives to this day. If today our Pantheon is populated by athletes or Hollywood stars, at the beginning of the last century, inventors were the names adored by the masses who avidly consumed the emergence of advances that are now part of our daily lives. From the car to the plane, through the means of communication and all types of household appliances, let's imagine what life was like without these facilities, and we will soon understand how their creation impacted everyday life and highlighted those responsible for their emergence. In 1904, Santos Dumont was one of these names, recognized in Paris, more than for his genius, for his audacity.

And what does audacity mean if not persistence even in the face of adverse conditions? Santos Dumont was an above-average person for his ideas and boldness, but, above all, for his courage in persisting in the face of each fall, long before he even took to the air, a lesson for our current society, accustomed to instant gratification.

And if these unpublished photos of Nº7 - found in a private archive in Paris - were your constant reminder of the power of perseverance, which dream would you have the audacity to not give up on?