Snapshots of the Past

Balloon drifting over a river beside a row of poplars – Antique Wall Art

Balloon drifting over a river beside a row of poplars — historic image
Balloon drifting over a river beside a row of poplars. Historic image from the Ballooning collection.

(Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare historic image captures Balloon drifting over a river beside a row of poplars in remarkable detail. It is part of the Snapshots of the Past archive, gathered over 25 years of research.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. It brings character to any room and makes a memorable gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

Balloon drifting over a river beside a row of poplars

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Drifting low over a river with a line of poplars along its bank, this balloon shows the slow, almost silent pace of early ballooning, when pilots had little control beyond rising, falling and riding whatever wind carried them. Ballooning took hold in France during the late 1700s, after the Montgolfier brothers demonstrated hot-air craft and balloonists began testing the sky over the French countryside. Scenes like this one, with the tall trees marking the water's edge, helped the public picture flight as something that could be watched from the ground, not just imagined.

Original scan2,507 × 2,144 px · prints to 8 × 7 in at 300 dpi
Reference02307u Voyages aèriens de M.M. Albert

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Snapshots of the Past helps heritage brands, museums, historians and storytellers tell stories with history: historic prints, image licensing and historical storytelling drawn from more than 25 years of research and curation.

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