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.
The black and white view of view of Hiram "Tommy" Thurlow and the Lockheed 14 aircraft in New York, New York. Typed on a piece of paper attached to the image: "Rolling Howard Hughes' plane of hangar at Floyd Bennett Field, with Lt. Thomas Thurlow, one of the navigators, calibrating the compass."