Monday, June 06, 2022

Painting by Charles H. Hubbell


The painting above was created by Charles H. Hubbell for Reinhardt N. Ausmus. (The library owns a photograph, but not the original painting.) The monoplane was designed, built, and flown by Ausmus in 1912. 

Reinhart Ausmus in 1920

Reinhardt N. Ausmus was only 16 years old when he built his first plane. Before serving in the U.S. Army as a flight instructor in World War I, Ausmus worked in Sandusky with another aviation pioneer, Thomas Benoist. Mr. Ausmus was an advocate for veterans' welfare throughout his life. He was appointed the first Erie County Veterans Service Officer in 1949, serving in that position until 1969.

Photo of Charles H. Hubbell, from the Smithsonian Institution Archives

Mr. Hubbell, who died in 1971, was one of the most well known commercial aviation artists of his time. Many of his paintings are now a part of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

1 comment:

Ed Daniel said...

Wonderful article about Charles Hubbell, and his painting of the early (pre-WWI) airplane built by our neighbor, Reiny Ausmus, one of the nation's earliest aviators. My parents (Cyril and Eleanor Daniel) and Reiny and his wife Mary (Williams) were in each other's weddings ca 1924, as my mother and Mary had been close freinds (and both employed at Hinde and Dauch). Reiny and Mary lived on Buckingham Street, next door to our house on Fifth Street at Buckingham. My siblings and I grew up listening to Reiny's accounts of his early years and his memories of other early aviators who he knew personally. My brother Bob wrote a history of Reiny that was the basis of Rieny being memorialized in the Ohio Hall of Aviation History.