Transpacific

New York: Pan American Airways System, 1937. First Edition. Wraps (same paper used for cover as for interior pages). Stapled. An attractive promotional brochure for Pan Am, circa 1937, when Pan American introduced its clipper service to China. This was an extension of the service, then about a year old, to Manila. To get to China one did some island hopping in those days -- the trip would involve stops in Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, Manila, Macao or Hong Kong, then mainland China, and 60 hours of flying time, or five days, and this brochure assumes the passenger will want to stay for a time in one of the layover locations, even if that isn't the final destination, so the brochure is promoting tourism on all the places mentioned. We would also consider this an important document in terms of the history of commercial aviation, as it captures the marketing of the rapid development of new routes by the pioneer of international air travel, Pan Am. 4to. 28 by 21.5 cm. Unpaginated, 24 pages, including cover. Four of these pages (which are a folded sheet), now separate, were probably attached to the cover and folded out. Since attached, there would have been some awkwardness, we think it is better they remain separate anyway, and in fact, that may have been intended. One side of this loose folded sheet is a colorful "fun" map of the Pacific and the places the service stops at. By fun, we are referring to the colorful whimsical vignettes of things associated with a location. Besides this map, every page of the brochure has illustration, either b/w photos or colorful drawn illustrations, and often several pictures on a page. A highlight is the two page spread in the center, which has a dissected interior view of the plane, then known as a flying boat, and one can see how in a tight and cramped space the airline sought to create some of the ambience of an ocean liner. Besides this two paged drawing of the plane with a coastal backdrop, there are four small square drawn vignettes of a female passenger enjoying the comfort of the plane and of the pilot. We imagine the brochure had a pretty wide circulation, but it being true ephemera, it is truly rare. There are no institutional holdings evidenced on OCLC First Search. We note that Pan Am had an internal periodical entitled "Transpacific" beginning a little later, and that is not to be confused with this, nor the few other items with "Transpacific" in their title.