November 13, 2015—October 23, 2016 

THIS EXHIBITION IS SPONSORED BY THE FOLLOWING:

Presenting Sponsors
Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust, Pheasant Hill Foundation, Richard Lounsbery Foundation, and Robert N. Wilson

Producing Sponsors
Astle-Alpaugh Family Foundation, Glenmede Trust, Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Henry, The Law Firm of Saul Ewing, LLP, and New Jersey Historical Commission

Supporting Sponsors
Patricia D. and David R. Atkinson, Baxter Construction, Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty, Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. John J. Heins, Mr. and Mrs. J. Richard Pierce, Mr. and Mrs. William Roebling, Mr. and Mrs. Austin C. Starkey, Jr., Judith Scheide, Harriet and Jay Vawter, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen K. West, and Dr. and Mrs. John G. Winant, Jr.

A single feat by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 changed his life and the world forever. Against all odds and with the support of a very few, he flew alone in a single-engine plane across the wide Atlantic Ocean by dead reckoning. No one anticipated the fame that followed. Lindbergh became the first media celebrity of our modern world, quickly surpassing the Prince of Wales as the most photographed man on earth. As Governor Charles Evan Hughes explained, “We measure heroes as we do ships, by their displacement. Charles Lindbergh has displaced everything.”

Into an era of tabloid journalism, crime syndicates, police corruption, poverty and desperation a time when it seemed people would do almost anything for a buck stepped Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. She was small, shy, sensitive and bookish an Ambassador’s daughter and top Smith College graduate from a warm loving family. He was tall, deeply reserved, and independent—an outdoorsman from the midwest who grew up an only child. Fresh-faced and squeaky clean, they were a breath of fresh air and the world couldn’t get enough of them.

The lives of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr. (1902-1974) and Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) collided with their times to disastrous effect more than once and at great personal cost. Their story unfolded against the highs and lows of the 20th century: from the early days of aviation to the space age; from faith in the infallibility of scientific progress to despair at its impact upon the natural world; from the era of spousal subservience to the feminist movement. All these and more formed the cultural backdrop to their 45-year marriage and are mirrored in their relationship with each other and with the world-at-large.

Many biographers have been drawn to Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh but few have focused on their intertwined lives, their life-long partnership that survived tragedy, loss, and controversy. The Lindberghs were hounded by the press, first for their accomplishments and then for the headline-capturing kidnapping and death of their toddler son. The crime and subsequent trial kept them in the public eye. And even though they fled to Europe to escape media attention, Charles Lindbergh’s fascination with Hitler’s Germany and his role in the isolationist America First movement before the nation’s entry into World War II ensured their place on the front page.

And, in 2003, when the world learned that Charles secretly fathered seven children by three German women between 1957 and his death in 1974, the couple’s youngest daughter, Reeve Lindbergh noted, “Being in my family is like a melodrama sometimes, with a story line that is simultaneously powerfully compelling and utterly baffling.”

Morven Museum & Garden presents the story of the Lindberghs using photographs, rarely-seen objects, selected text, audio, video and other interactive components.

Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Couple of an Age, is the first large-scale exhibition to explore the vices and virtues of this prominent couple.