What:

Philadelphia Postmaster Michael Hernandez will participate in a special dedication ceremony joining The Friends of Northeast Philadelphia History. The event celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first regularly scheduled US Airmail delivery that took place in NE Philadelphia at Bustleton Field. 

Who:

Philadelphia Postmaster Michael Hernandez
The Friends of Northeast Philadelphia History

When:

Saturday, May 19 at 11 a.m.

Where:

2100 Red Lion Rd (near Red Lion and Roosevelt Blvd.)
Philadelphia, PA. 19115 

Background:  

See the flyer and web site at http://www.1stairmail.com/.

The Airmail History button will take you to a list of links for informational websites.  One of the most comprehensive articles is at https://invertedjenny.com/history. A historical marker will be unveiled during the ceremony at 12 p.m. on May 19.

The U.S. Postal Service commemorates the 100th anniversary of the beginning of airmail service with a United States Air Mail Forever stamp that celebrates the courage of the pioneering airmail carriers and the foresight of those who fostered the new service and made it a success.

On May 15, 1918, a small group of Army pilots delivered mail along a route that linked Washington, Philadelphia and New York — initiating the world's first regularly scheduled airmail service.

The United States Post Office Department took charge of the “U.S. Air Mail Service” later that summer, operating it from Aug. 12, 1918, through Sept. 1, 1927. Airmail delivery, daily except on Sundays, became part of the fabric of the American economy and spurred the growth of the nation’s aviation industry.

A first-day-of-issue dedication for the blue stamp was held May 1, 2018, at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, DC, to commemorate the start of aviation mail delivery. A first-day-of-issue dedication for the red stamp will take place August 11, in College Park, MD, in honor of the Post Office Department’s U.S. Air Mail Service. More details will be forthcoming.

Both stamps, printed in intaglio — a design transferred to paper from an engraved plate — depict a drawing of the type of plane typically used in the early days of airmail, a Curtiss JN-4H biplane. The biplane was also featured on the stamps that were originally issued in 1918 to commemorate the beginning of regularly scheduled airmail service. The stamp designs evoke that earlier period.