Description:

Apollo XI Astronauts - Inscribed "with best wishes from Tranquility Base" by Neil Armstrong, signed by all three Apollo astronauts on the first lunar landing mission - Man's first message from the Moon, spoken by Armstrong, was "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

Exceedingly Rare Color Photograph Signed "To Collins Bird - / With Sincere Best Wishes / from Tranquility Base / Neil Armstrong," "Buzz Aldrin," and "M. Collins." Color, 7.25" x 7" (visible), matted and framed to 12.5" x 12.5". Fine condition.

Official NASA photographs taken on the Moon, especially those taken on the day of the landing, signed by all three Apollo XI crewmembers, are extremely rare and desirable, as compared to lithographic prints or even the common Apollo XI posed crew photograph.

This photograph, titled "Flag of the U.S. deployed on surface of the Moon," was taken from inside the lunar module on July 20, 1969. Captioned by NASA on its website: "The flag of the United States, deployed on the surface of the Moon, dominates this photograph taken from inside the Lunar Module. The footprints of Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. stand out clearly. In the far background is the deployed black and white lunar surface television camera which televised the Apollo 11 lunar surface extravehicular activity." NASA's Photo ID is AS11-37-5545, "Date Taken: 1969-07-20."

Collins Bird was the owner of the Georgetown Inn on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C. When astronauts and NASA officials were in the nation's capital, they stayed at Bird's hotel. Apollo astronaut James Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger wrote in "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13" (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), "Ever since 1962, when Wally Schirra came to town for a medal and a handshake from President Kennedy following his successful nine-hour Mercury flight, the inn had served as unofficial host to many a NASA dignitary. The place was out-of-the-way enough to offer the privacy the country's space pioneers craved, and new enough to offer the poshness they had come to enjoy. Collins Bird, the hotel's first and only owner, had his inn done up in a subdued colonial style‰Û_"

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