77/3003 [Aviation]. Atlas Sky Merchant. First North African-European Merchandising Flight. Netherlands June 16-18, 1949. N.pl., 1949, 27 mounted (cut out) gelatin silver prints, various sizes, in orig. giltlettered brown cloth album, obl. folio.

= The Atlas Supply Company was a subsidiary of Standard Oil that used one of the many converted military aircraft that were available after World War II as company plane. It obtained useful advertising with their conversion of a C-54 into a flying showroom and meeting room for their clients and dealers. They named their plane "The Atlas Sky Merchant." In order to get good publicity and expand their export business, the Atlas Supply Company came up with the idea of sending their Atlas Sky Merchant on a round-the-world flight. In the wake of that flight the company also organised a "North African-European Merchandising Flight" during which they also made a stop at Schiphol Airport in 1949. The present album shows, apart from the plane itself, some of the major figures involved in the company's activities: i.a. the pilot of the plane (Iwan Smirnoff), F.J. "Fritz" Bedford (president of the Atlas) and Mr. Klaare (managing director of "SAPCo").