Earle Ovington in Queen Monoplane Receiving the First Mail to be Delivered by Air, September 23, 1911

Summary

When the Post Office Department sponsored the first official air mail flight on September 23, 1911, it wasn't much more than a publicity stunt. Pilot Earle Ovington carried a sack of mail from Garden City, New York, to nearby Mineola, where he dropped it into a field behind the local post office. Serious air mail operations started in 1918.

When the Post Office Department sponsored the first official air mail flight on September 23, 1911, it wasn't much more than a publicity stunt. Pilot Earle Ovington carried a sack of mail from Garden City, New York, to nearby Mineola, where he dropped it into a field behind the local post office. Serious air mail operations started in 1918.

Artifact

Photographic print

Subject Date

23 September 1911

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

64.167.188.P.2667

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of Ford Motor Company.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Gelatin silver process

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 10.813 in

Width: 7.438 in

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