Concord’s most famous visitor most likely was Lafayette, who visited the city 200 years ago this week. Perhaps the second biggest celebrity was the individual pictured here on the old balcony of the Eagle Hotel. Who was he?

The story of this celebrity is one of the subjects of “Crosscurrents of Change: The History of Concord in the Twentieth Century,” which is due out in the fall.

The man on the Eagle Hotel balcony is Charles A. Lindbergh, who flew non-stop from New York to Paris on May 20-21, 1927, some 93 years ago this month. Lindbergh flew into Concord on July 23, 1927 in the same airplane, the "Spirit of St. Louis", which had been crated and brought back across the Atlantic on a U.S. Navy ship. It took Lindbergh five hours to fly from Boston to Concord because he flew via Lynn and Lowell, Massachusetts, and Nashua, New Hampshire, as well as Portland, Maine - his original destination where he was unable to land due to fog.

The trip was financed by wealthy aviation enthusiasts Harry and Daniel Guggenheim, who brought Lindbergh to 48 states over the course of three months. The celebrations and parades alerted Americans to the possibilities of industrial aviation and made Lindbergh famous and wealthy.

Concord's role in American aviation is one of the subjects of "Crosscurrents of Change: The History of Concord in the Twentieth Century". The Concord Historical Society is publishing the book some time this fall.