Original photograph. 8.5x14 cm (3¼x5½"). Photograph of a pilot, apparently Asian, seated on the wing of an airplane, inscribed “Sincerely Yours, Wallace S. Chinn. 7-13-20”.

The picture appears to be taken at the airfield at Redwood City, California, in operation from 1915 until the 1930s as site of a School of Aviation then owned by World War I flying ace Walter Varney, an aviation pioneer who later founded a company that evolved into United Airlines. Given that there must have been few Chinese-American aviators in 1920, it’s surprising that there seems to be no historical record of a Wallace S. Chinn, not even in the 1920 US Census.