Abstract:
In the late 19th-century, a number of barnstorming aeronautical groups were touring North Carolina, thrilling great crowds by rising to unbelievable heights in hot air balloons and parachuting down from as high as 8,000 feet. On August 12, 1892, Madame Leona O'Dell, Mademoiselle Dot Zelno, and their dog Gyp, of the Grace Shannon Balloon Company, soared over Wrightsville Beach suspended beneath a single unmanned balloon to heights of 8,000, 4500, and 3,000 feet, respectively, before cutting themselves free and descending under pre-opened but unribbed parachutes.