Huntington Library Garden, 1948. And the Crash of a Superfortress.

            The Postcard

A postally unused postcard bearing no studio name. The back of the card has been hand-stamped with the date Oct. 6 1948.

Also on the back of the card someone has used a pen in order to write the following:

"Among the chimney pot
cactuses in the tropical
garden of Huntington
Library.
Sept. 1948."

Huntington Library

The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution founded in 1919 by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Marino, California. 

In addition to the library, the institution houses an extensive art collection with a focus on 18th. and 19th. century European art and 17th. to mid-20th. century American art. 

As of 2022, the Huntington has 478 employees and 1,200 volunteers.

The property also includes approximately 120 acres (49 ha) of specialized botanical landscaped gardens, most notably the Japanese Garden, the Desert Garden, and the Chinese Garden. 

The Desert Garden, one of the world's largest and oldest outdoor collections of cacti and other succulents, contains plants from extreme environments, many of which were acquired by Henry E. Huntington and William Hertrich (the garden curator). 

One of the Huntington's most botanically important gardens, the Desert Garden brings together a plant group largely unknown and unappreciated at the beginning of the 1900's. 

Containing a broad category of xerophytes (aridity-adapted plants), the Desert Garden grew to preeminence and remains today among the world's finest, with more than 5,000 species.

Tennessee Williams

So what else happened on Wednesday the 6th. October 1948?

Well, on that day, the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke had its Broadway premiere at the Music Box Theatre.

Gerry Adams

The 6th. October 1948 also marked the birth in Belfast of Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Féin political party. 

The Crash of a Superfortress

Also on that day, a USAF Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber crashed in Waycross, Georgia after an engine fire broke out, killing 9 of the 13 aboard.

The crash occurred while the aircraft was climbing to altitude from Robins Air Force Base. Four men parachuted to safety. 

Because the flight was a test of the "Sunseeker” (a heat-seeking device later used in the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile), the federal government invoked the state secrets privilege. 

This avoided having to provide the Air Force's accident report in a subsequent suit for damages by victims of the crash and their heirs, despite the fact that the device played no role in the crash itself, and was not referred to in the report.

(a) United States v. Reynolds

A $225,000 summary judgment against the Government and for the contractor's widows was directed when the Government claimed that the accident report, as well as documents with surviving crewmember statements, could not be furnished without seriously hampering national security. 

However, the Supreme Court overturned the judgment under state secrets privilege. Nevertheless, the Air Force agreed to pay an out-of-court settlement of $170,000.

(b) The Cause of the Crash

Decades later the declassified accident report indicated the cause to have been a fire and drop in manifold pressure in the number 1 engine, as well as an inadvertent feathering of the number 4 engine, which was not successfully un-feathered prior to the crash. 

The report indicated the cause of the fire in engine 1 could not be positively determined, but was likely to have been the result of breaks in the right exhaust collector ring. 

The report further stated that the fire may have been aggravated by non-compliance with Technical Orders 01-20EJ-117 and 01-20EJ-178. It concluded that the aircraft was not considered safe for flight due to non-compliance with these orders. 

A consequent lawsuit to reopen the case claimed that the report's information about the cause was not secret, and alleged a government coverup, but the case was not reopened.

Tennessee Williams

Also on that day, the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke had its Broadway premiere at the Music Box Theatre.

Gerry Adams

The 6th. October 1948 also marked the birth in Belfast of Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Féin political party.

Taken on: May 18, 2022

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