Photo Library

The frontispiece of the book. Depicting the then four-year-old custom house in San Francisco.

Thomas C. Eagar, Admeasurer of ships by caricaturist and Customs Examiner Patrick B. Devine.

Cartoon: Treasury Hen

Cartoon: Inquisition

Page from Register of Employees

Bill to Resolve Accounts

Cartoon: The Sub-Treasurers' Meeting

Illustration: The Times

Howard Hughes in the doorway of his plane, surrounded by press and well-wishers, shortly after setting the round-the-world record.

Hughes' plane landing at Floyd Bennett Field on its final touchdown for the round the world record, with the crowds on either side of the runway.

Manifest No. 152 was issued on July 9, 1938 for Howard Hughes, whose signature appears as Master. The full name of the plane was "New York World's Fair 1939." Grover Whalen, president of the Fair, backed the trip as a way to invite other nations to participate. Rumors of the flight hit the newspapers over a week before, with reports that the Department of Commerce granted Hughes a permit from New York to Paris.

Floyd Bennett Field on Long Island, New York, was a site where one record after another was set and broken in rapid succession during the golden era of aviation between the two world wars. In this photograph, Hughes and his crew prepare to set out for Paris from the Field on the first leg of their tour. Their 91-hour adventure generated publicity for the World's Fair, set to open the following year -- and made Howard Hughes an international celebrity.