Antiques Roadshow | Follow the Stories | Will Rogers & Wiley Post Memorabilia

Will Rogers & Wiley Post Memorabilia

Slideshow by Ben Phelan
Appraised by Rudy Franchi
$18,000-$20,000

Ted (right) is the inheritor of a group of remarkable photographs and autographs, valued at up to $20,000 by Rudy Franchi at the Palm Springs ROADSHOW event in June 2008. The collection documents the final hours of Will Rogers and Wiley Post, Rogers' friend and pilot, before their plane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935. When Ted pointed out that Rogers and Post's sudden deaths brought about a "national mourning era," he does not exaggerate. Rogers' death in particular was a terrific shock to his fans and readers — practically the entire American public.