Unidentified photographer
1888, 27 September
The wedding of Margaret Buckley and Edward T. Davis

Cabinet card
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
[via Retronaut]
 
The September 27, 1888, wedding of Margaret Buckley and Edward T. Davis was held at the Rhode Island State Fair at Narrangansett Park in Providence. An article in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper estimates that 40,000 watched as Davis and Buckley entered the "specially prepared 'bridal car' of the mammoth balloon Commonwealth, held down by 24 men at the guy ropes." After the ceremony, aeronauts James Allen and his son James K. directed the balloon skyward.
 
At dusk, the balloon landed in a swamp near Easton, Massachusetts, about thirty miles away from Providence. The wedding party was "obliged to cling to the ropes above the basket to keep out of the water." Finally rescued, the balloon tied safely to a tree, the couple completed their trip by rail. Afterwards, Allen and the Davises reenacted their wedding for a photographer in a studio.
 
LL/54746