Of Ports and Planes: The Port of Los Angeles, the 1910 International Aviation Meet, and Western Borderlands Anxieties

This paper surveys three conceptual borders that city elites encountered around 1910: budding interest in air travel, expanding city boundaries, and Los Angeles’ growing port. Exploring how powerful Angeleno boosters dealt with the changing city gives greater insight into Los Angeles’ growing borderlands identity in the early 20^th century. In 1910, the city hosted the Los Angeles International Aviation Meet, the first major airshow held in the United States Led by the Merchants and Manufacturers Association and the Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles business community united with local promoters to bring the airshow to Los Angeles. Though the Aviation Meet was one of three major airshows held in the United States—the others took place in Boston and New York—figures such as Henry Huntington seized upon the Meet as evidence of Western exceptionalism and offered lucrative prizes in order to lure the participation of renowned fliers, such as Glen Curtiss. The Chamber’s activism on behalf of the airshow echoed its enthusiastic support for locating the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, a move that required annexing the communities of San Pedro and Wilmington. These developments collectively signaled that Los Angeles could become a global city. Los Angeles’ expansion, though, dictated that Angelenos should fortify the city in order to repel new Pacific threats.