The Howard Hughes Public Relations Photograph Collection depicts the activities of businessman Howard Hughes from 1930 to 1950. The photographs primarily depict aircraft flown by Hughes or designed by the Hughes Aircraft Company, including the XF-11 reconnaissance plane, the HK-1 Hercules (or "Spruce Goose"), and the Hughes H-1 Racer. The photographs also depict celebrations following Hughes's circumnavigation flight in New York City, New York and Chicago, Illinois in 1938. Lastly, the photographs include Hughes testifying in front of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program in 1947.
Typed onto a piece of paper given with the image: "As Los Angeles Welcomed Howard Hughes Los Angeles, Cal. -- The crowd gathered around the world-circling plane of Howard Hughes in the hangar at the Grand Central Air Terminal as Hughes and his companions on his record-breaking world flight alighted from the plane to receive the welcome home of Southern California. Hughes put his plane down at the airport and taxied it into the hangar all before alighting with his companions. Credit Line (ACME) 8/2/38 NY."