HISTORY GUEST Braniff
19 Braniff reservations agent Elizabeth Sheppard has been assisting with Braniff boutique events for more than five decades . She is displaying a new Braniff Hawaii t-shirt at the Airliners International Collectibles Show at DFW airport in April 2024 . // CHRIS SLOAN
20 Braniff Airways foundation board member David Preziosi MC ’ S at a Braniff style show community outreach event . Originally planned for 12 shows over a year ’ s period , the event has now been in operation for three years and more than 60 shows have been presented to many different audiences . // CHRIS SLOAN
One of the most prized and most requested parts of the collection is billed ‘ Box Zero ’. This collection has the original negatives and documents for The End of The Plain Plane campaign , including the very first aircraft painted in the livery . Some of the curator ’ s favorite objects include a Douglas DC-7 display model from 1957 , complete with whirring electric propellers , rescued 10 years ago from the former Floyd Bennet Field Museum in New York ; two of the original invaluable hand-painted Alexander Calder Flying Colors of the United States models , with the Beastie and sunburst icons on them ; and Harding Lawrence ’ s personal green and orange Boeing 747 models from 1968 , used for promotional purposes . Other eclectic pieces include :
The signage from the Dallas Lemon Avenue drive-through ticket office .
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The original radio work table and microphone from the airline ’ s founding in 1928 .
The 11 volumes of 2 ’ x3 ’ archival books with all 17,562 items from Alexander Girard .
Cass ’ s passion is a full-time , infectious labor of love . “ I love the papers . I love reading . I love researching . I love finding the gems that no one knew about .”
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The foundation is working diligently on a bricks-andmortar museum . A planned Braniff Hotel at the old Hostess College , along the lines of the TWA Hotel at New York ’ s JFK , has yet to emerge . In the meantime , the display is loaned out to various museums , including the Fort Worth Museum of Art and a large display at Dallas Frontiers of Flight Museum . Some of
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