Ivy Baldwin (born William Ivy July 31, 1866 – October 8, 1953, in Houston, Texas, he changed his name in later years to Ivy Baldwin so that he and his partner, Thomas Scott Baldwin, could be billed as "The Baldwin Brothers". CAHS: ''Ivy Baldwin History''
/ref> Ivy Baldwin was an American

balloonist In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat tha ...

, aeronaut and high-wire performer. He is credited with being the first aviator to be shot down during wartime in the U.S. during the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (cl ...

Biography

In 1877 he performed in Thayer Dollar Circus as a

tightrope walker Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...

. He later joined with Thomas and Sam Baldwin—billed as "The Baldwin Brothers"—performing high wire acts as well as balloon ascensions and parachuting. The Baldwin Brothers performed using handmade balloons filled with hot air which would ascend to 2500 feet as Ivy Baldwin performed acrobatics and would parachute to the ground. He became a solo performer in 1893 and joined the

U.S. Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of M ...

the following year as a Sergeant in the position of piloting and maintaining their demonstration balloon. From 1890 to 1907 Baldwin spent many summers at

Elitch Gardens Elitch Gardens was a family-owned seasonal amusement park, theater, and botanic garden in the West Highland neighborhood in northwest Denver, Colorado, United States, at 38th and Tennyson streets. For more than a century Elitch's was one of the m ...

where he made balloon ascents on Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes performing stunts on a trapeze as he ascended. "In 1902, for the first time, Ivy Baldwin parachuted to the earth from the balloon.

Mary Elitch Long Mary Elitch Long ( maiden name Hauck) (May 10, 1856 – July 16, 1936) was one of the original owners of Elitch Gardens in Denver, CO. She was the first woman to own and manage a zoo—the first zoo between Chicago and the west coast—and one o ...

, the owner of the gardens, was quoted as saying: "Mr. Long and I were the first passengers to soar into the Colorado sky. I must confess there were some apprehensive gasps as the starting whistle blew, but our fears soon gave place to a feeling of power and security as we ascended... From the great height of fifteen hundred feet, all Denver and its environs of mountains and plains lay spread before our entranced vision." In 1898 he was the pilot of the hot air balloon that gave U.S. troops location information of Spanish snipers before the

Battle of San Juan Hill The Battle of San Juan Hill, also known as the Battle for the San Juan Heights, was a major battle of the Spanish–American War fought between an American force under the command of William Rufus Shafter and Joseph Wheeler against a Spanish ...

. The balloon was shot down on June 30, 1898, and landed in the Aguadores River. Baldwin was later honourably discharged and he took fragments of the balloon with him which he would sell when he performed, dubbing himself "the air hero of the late War". He celebrated his eighty-second birthday by tightrope walking 125 feet above a canyon formed by the South Boulder Creek in Colorado, a crossing he'd made 80 times in 40 years. Ivy Baldwin lived many years in Eldorado Canyon, in Boulder County, Colorado, where he died, not in a balloon mishap, but in bed, at his home on Oct. 8, 1953, at the age of 87.

Halls of fame

He was the first inductee to the

Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame The Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame was established by the Colorado Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) in Denver, Colorado, USA, on November 11, 1969 for the State of Colorado. The original and first ten Colorado aviation pioneers were inducted i ...

in 1969, along with 9 other early Colorado aviators. They stated that since his early years he had “a sincere urge to get into the air, one way or the other.” The ceremony noted that he was also "the first person to fly a powered 'air craft' in the State of Colorado" since he had made a brief flight "in a self-designed and self-built powered dirigible-type balloon". He was selected to be in the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame for being "the first person to successfully fly an airplane in the State of Nevada." which he accomplished on June 23, 1910.

References

External links

*
Colorado Aviation Historical Society website

Airport Journals: Ivy Baldwin Story
;Further reading * Holmes, Charles W., Editor, ''Honoree Album of the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame'', The

Colorado Aviation Historical Society The Colorado Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) is located in Denver, Colorado and was founded in 1966. CAHS home is at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. The Society acquires, restores, preserves and provides for public display, aircra ...

, 1999, Audubon Media Corp., Audubon, IA {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Ivy Aviation pioneers Aviators from Texas American balloonists 1866 births 1953 deaths

Biography

Halls of fame

See also

References

External links