Harriet Quimby was unlucky twice.  Her most famous feat—being the first woman to fly across the English Channel--coincided with the sinking of the Titanic.  On the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 16, 1912, she got one and one half column inches, “Miss Quimby Flies Across the Channel.”  The rest of the page was about the Titanic.  Her second piece of bad luck was falling out of a plane, which killed her.  But luck is not the subject here; it is how Harriet Quimby appeared in photographs, and a connection to film of the First World War and to the history of performance.  Harriett Quimby smiled for the camera; more “serious” people--male aviators and female physicians of the same era did not.  When did people begin to smile for the camera, how and why?  Simple question, slightly complex answer. 

David Ritchie finds the world and those in it both curious and interesting.  He expresses understanding and delight, in plays, paintings, poetry, fiction and historical studies.  He has recently published four essays in “Inscriptions,” a journal of contemporary thinking on art, philosophy and psycho-analysis, and one in a collection on Teaching Comedy.  The talk comes out of an attempt to complete a book.