On Sept. 10, 1910, a Missouri-born pilot named Thomas Scott Baldwin did something most St. Louisans had never seen: He took flight over the city.
Along the Mississippi River, an estimated 200,000 people flocked to the riverfront. Another 17,000 stood on the Eads Bridge. Baldwin flew through the bridge’s eastern arch and dipped under the newly built McKinley Bridge. City officials later declared that St. Louis, like New York, had joined the class of American cities that had “conquered the skies.”
That moment — and many others — are highlighted in Edward McPherson’s new book, “Look Out: The Delight and Danger of Taking the Long View.” McPherson, an associate professor of English at Washington University, examines long-distance mapping, aerial photography and surveillance. He details how an elevated perspective comes with privilege and generates power.
“The spirit of St. Louis has always longed for the air,” McPherson writes.
He traces that longing from the mounds built by the Mississippian people in present-day Collinsville to the aerial surveillance of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He also examines how residents of north St. Louis were displaced by construction of the NGA’s new campus.
“I don't think I had realized when I first moved here 13 years ago [that St. Louis] really is sort of this cradle of aerial imagination,” he told St. Louis on the Air. “There were early experiments in ballooning and flight. Lindbergh was backed by money men from St. Louis. Boeing [and] McDonnell Douglas — those companies have built missiles, fighter jets and space capsules. The NGA has been here for a long time. St. Louis produced the maps that the Apollo astronauts used to land on the moon. The aerial imagination really does have a grip on the city — and has for a long time.”
To hear the entire conversation with Edward McPherson listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
