American Historical Ephemera and Photography

38 banknotes adhered together with clear tape along vertical edges forming a string of notes approximately 17 feet in length. Bills of varying monetary denominations and national currencies, including notes from Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany, Korea, Cuba, France, Argentina, Philippines, Brazil, and the United States. A United States $1 bill appears to be the first note of the short snorter, and bears the following identification along the edges of the note: "Short Snorter / "Big Ed" Wilson / Original Started Feb 1943 Stolen in New Orleans Nov. 14, 1945 / (Ford Island) N.A.S. [Naval Air Station]. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii." More than 200 signatures follow on the short snorter bills, many with accompanying dates and notations that in some cases appear to have been added by Wilson after the fact to identify the individual and/or the occasion on which the signature was obtained. Inscriptions executed in varying colored inks and on both sides of the bills.

Provenance: Consignor relates short snorter was purchased directly from original owner and compiler of signatures, Rear Admiral Edwin Mark "Big Ed" Wilson (1918-2012).

Notable among the inscriptions are a large number of servicemen and airmen, including: General Douglas MACARTHUR; Eddie RICKENBACKER, World War I fighter pilot and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient (consignor relates that Rear Admiral Wilson claimed Rickenbacker signed over MacArthur because of his intense dislike for the general); Iyozo FUJITA, WWII Japanese ace fighter pilot and participant in the attack on Pearl Harbor; Joseph "Joe" FOSS, Marine ace fighter pilot, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, and Governor of South Dakota; and dozens more.

Notable sports figures, include: Willie MAYS, Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder; Charles Dillon "Casey" STENGEL, Major League Baseball manager of the New York Yankees & Mets; college football coach Tommy PROTHRO. Political, entertainment, cultural, and religious figures, include: Vice President Richard NIXON; former President Herbert HOOVER; the Reverend Billy GRAHAM; television and radio personality Art LINKLETTER; author Herman WOUK; Apollo astronaut Frank BORMAN; and actor and Mayor of Palm Springs, Charles FARRELL. Additional signatures range from the "Pledge Class of Sigma Alpha Epsilon - Stanford University / Autumn, 1946" to Eastern Airlines executives, to artists, to attendees of a Junior League party, to attendees of a ceremonial glass breaking ceremony, to visitors of California's "Bohemian Grove" encampment. Dozens of other men and women from locations across the country also have signed the short snorter, indicating that additional research is likely to uncover even more signatures of importance.

"Big Ed Wilson" had an illustrious career as a naval aviator, and travelled widely during his naval career and during his retirement. Though the practice of creating short snorters originated earlier in the twentieth century, this type of "souvenir" came into wider prominence during World War II particularly with Allied airmen such as Wilson who collected currency from places they had visited. During WWII Wilson had his first combat tour in the Pacific at Guadalcanal. He is credited with sinking two Japanese destroyers, sinking or disabling three Japanese troop carriers, and he led every second attack group off of the carrier USS Hornet. Wilson survived being shot down on successive days by the Japanese, and was decorated with three Distinguished Flying Crosses and three Air Medals. After WWII, he finished college at Stanford University and continued flying with the Naval Reserve. In 1962 he was selected Captain in the Naval Reserve, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral, representing Commander, Naval Air Reserve Forces on the West Coast. He retired in 1978 and was given the Meritorious Service Medal. This short snorter appears to have been started in 1945 while Wilson was stationed in Pearl Harbor in the immediate aftermath of the war, and then added to in the subsequent three decades. A dollar bill overstamped "Hawaii," one of the notes issued in July 1942 as an emergency issue after the attack on Pearl Harbor, appears early in the short snorter further solidifying the Pearl Harbor connection.

With its exceptional length, impressive number of signatures, and impeccable provenance, Wilson's short snorter is an extraordinary example of this unique type of Historic Americana.