A Providence Aeronaut's Trauma

This actually predates Lovecraft by mor than a year, but it is such an xciting incident I include it in the blog. No evidence that HPL crossed paths with it, but one imagines it could easily be included in a Mythos tangent.

The image should expand if you click it.

The only touch point I know is:

I must be very deliberate now, and choose my words. After ploughing down a few steps amidst the gnawled bones we saw that there was light ahead; not any mystic phosphorescence, but a filtered daylight which could not come except from unknown fissures in the cliff that over-looked the waste valley. That such fissures had escaped notice from outside was hardly remarkable, for not only is the valley wholly uninhabited, but the cliff is so high and beetling that only an aeronaut could study its face in detail. "Rats in the Walls", HPL


RHODE ISLAND - AN AERONAUTS THRILLING EXPERIENCE AT PROVIDENCE - HIS BALLOON COLLAPSES WHEN TWO MILES HIGH, AND HE FALLS TO THE EARTH. An article concerning this event is included which states that he survived the fall. Published in "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper" July 20, 1889. Dimensions of the engraved area, in inches, minus margins is 7 1/4 x 9. This is a 118-year old engraving in excellent condition and guaranteed to be as described.