[Explosion of the Hindenburg, Lakehurst, New Jersey, May 6, 1937]

Artist:: Charles Hoff (American, 1905–1975)

Date:: 1937

Medium:: Gelatin silver print

Dimensions:: 27.6 x 34.5 cm (10 7/8 x 13 9/16 in.)

Classification:: Photographs

Credit Line:: Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987

Accession Number:: 1987.1100.32

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 903

On May 6, 1937, twenty-two news photographers gathered in Lakehurst, New Jersey to record the landing of the Hindenburg after its eleventh transatlatic crossing. The giant silver vessel floated in from the Atlantic at dusk, when suddenly flames shot out from the hull, setting off a spectacular explosion that left thirty-six dead. Charles Hoff, on assignment for the Daily News, made only one exposure during the forty-seven seconds in which the Hindenburg disappear in flames. His film holder was immediately flown to Newark, where a waiting messenger picked it up and rushed it to the newspaper's darkroom. The next day, Hoff's photograph, and others like it, startled millions around the world.

Inscription: Inscribed in pencil, verso UL [sideways]: "St"; 3 illegible letters inscribed in negative on print, recto UR;

[Edwynn Houk to Waddell, February 3, 1984]; John C. Waddell

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23, 1989–December 31, 1989.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28, 1990–April 22, 1990.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10, 1990–July 15, 1990.

High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5, 1991–April 28, 1991.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8, 1991–August 4, 1991.

IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.

Negative date: May 6, 1937

Timelines
The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.–present

The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
"Photography Between the Wars: Selections from the Ford Motor Company Collection": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 45, no. 4 (Spring, 1988)

Department

Photographs (35,820)

Artist / Maker / Culture

Charles Hoff (2)

Object Type / Material

Gelatin silver prints (9,496)

Photographs (46,254)

Geographic Location

North and Central America (92,272)