UPCOMING EVENTS

“Viewing the Historic Rhonie and Grumman Murals”

At the Cradle of Aviation Museum

East Garden City, NY

Aline Rhonie (1909-1963) was a pioneering pilot who learned to fly in 1930.  More than a skilled pilot, Rhonie was a woman of extraordinary talents, including that of a fine artist who learned mural painting in the fresco style from the famous Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera.  Rhonie is best known for the fresco she painted between 1934-1938 on an interior wall of Hangar F at Long Island’s Roosevelt Field.  Rhonie’s enormous 110-foot mural depicted the history of flight on Long Island, from the Wright Brothers and Glenn Curtiss to Charles Lindbergh’s epic journey from Roosevelt Field to Paris in 1927.  In 1960, Rhonie learned that Hangar F and her mural were scheduled to be demolished.  She had the mural divided into panels and removed.  Rhonie’s estate donated the mural to the Long Island Early Flyers Club who stored it at the Sands Point Preserve for 40 years.  Most recently, it was at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics in Queens.

This fall the Rhonie Mural has been installed in its new home at the Cradle of Aviation Museum.  There it will be available to be seen by more people than ever before.  We welcome you to be among the first.  Another recently installed mural of Grumman workers, painted from life in 1945, will also be part of the program.  A Cradle of Aviation staff member will be our guide to the history of aviation depicted in the murals. In addition, you can see our Historical Society’s new exhibit panels commemorating the history of Nassau County.

Admission: Free to Historical Society members; be sure to bring the program meeting announcement card postal-mailed to your home street address.

Memberships will be available at the door for new members.

Directions: Take the Meadowbrook Parkway to Exit M4, then follow road signs to Museum Row; turn right at the figure in a space suit.

Go to the Nassau County Historical Society table inside.