2-839-776 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Box with scene showing Clayton's Ascent, after 1835. Oval-shaped, pasteboard bandbox covered in paper block-printed with distemper, commemorating Richard Clayton, pioneering midwestern aeronaut. Clayton ascended from Cincinnati, Ohio on April 8, 1835 and landed nine and a half hours later in Monroe County, Virginia. He traveled 350 miles and broke the world record for the farthest distance traveled in a balloon. He continued to fly in Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia for the next decade. The sides of the box show a repeating scene of a balloon over a town and trees. Printing done in white, pink, black, red, and yellow paints on a blue background. 'Clayton's Ascent' is printed in the sky next to the balloons. Lid has a scene of horses and a carriage in front of a building and trees. The sides of the lid are covered in strips of paper with decorative floral motifs.