On May 23, 1846, a crowd gathered in the Prater, a large public park in Vienna’s 2nd district. They watched as an enormous hot air balloon, known as The Eagle of Vienna, was launched carrying the director of Lehmann’s Aviation, Christian Lehmann, his daughter Carolina, and the Austrian explorer/naturalist Johann Natterer (1787-1843).

Variant prints are held in the collection of the Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. [see below]

Andreas Geiger (1765-1856), Lehmann’s Luftfahrt mit seinem Riesen Ballon ‘der Adler von Wien’ in Gesellschaft seiner Tochter Carolina und des Herrn Dr. Natterer im Prater am 23. Mai 1846,” [Lehmann’s aviation with its giant balloon ‘the eagle of Vienna’ in the company of his daughter Carolina and Dr. Natterer in the Prater on May 23, 1846]. Etching. A special pictures supplement to the Theaterzeitung (Vienna Theater Newspaper). Harold Fowler McCormick Collection of Aeronautica, Princeton University Library