"Oh! how I wish I could fly, There’s so much to see from the sky."

January 30, 2016 5:05 PM

For decades, artist Harry Smith (previously on mefi) collected paper airplanes that he found on the streets of New York City- over 250 of them from 1961 to 1987. They're now in the collection of the Getty Research Institute.

A new book about the collection was recently published.

posted by moonmilk (5 comments total)

Awesome, thank you.
posted by mwhybark at 6:42 PM on January 30, 2016

The chapter on him and his The Anthology of American Folk Music in Amanda Petrusich's "Do Not Sell At Any Price" is fantastic (as is the whole book). At least part of that chapter was excerpted by Pitchfork (and the Anthology itself appears to be the topic of the Previously on MeFi...).

Also, this image of Harry and its caption of "transforming milk into milk" by Allen Ginsberg, always and forever.
posted by togdon at 8:13 PM on January 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

That's an amazing picture, togdon, and I think Harry Smith may have been the Lorax.
posted by moonmilk at 4:27 PM on February 1, 2016

OMFG! In the summer of 1996 I worked on the 23rd floor of the Chrylser building while temping for Tenzer, Greenblatt, Fallon & Kaplan in the records department. The windows, for whatever reason, opened all the way. I totally made a paper airplane, wrote my name and address on it, and set it on its way. I wonder if this guy had it?
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:42 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Aaaand he passed away in 1991, so probably not.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:47 PM on February 4, 2016