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Midway Atoll, also called Midway Island, is part of the territory now called the United States Minor Outlying Islands. It was utilized by Pan American Airways as an island stop on their transpacific route to Asia from the 1930s to the 1950s. As its name suggests, it’s roughly halfway between the continents of Asia and North America. Midway was an important base for Pan Am’s transpacific flying boat routes on the leg between Hawai’i and Wake Island. Midway remains an important breeding ground for the Laysan albatross. They inhabit the entire island, including human settlements. Their awkwardness on land and behavioral antics entertained residents and visiting passengers earning them the nickname “gooney bird.” Tourists are no longer allowed on Midway. It now part of the 140,000-square-mile Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and home to 70% of the world’s Laysan albatross population, whose individuals can live to 55 years or more. Image: Pan American’s “Airways Inn” with gooney birds on the lawn, Midway Island, c. 1940. Gift of the Captain John B. Russell Family. 2012.149.0284
This image was posted on November 07, 2019.
This post mentions the following things involved with the SFO Museum collection:
Pan American Airways.
It is related to
Pan American World Airways (the company)
.