On May 13th, 1918,
just two days after President Woodrow Wilson signed an act allowing
mail to be carried by airplane, the US Post Office Department released
the world’s first airmail stamp. To highlight the importance of the
occasion – and to help postmasters differentiate the new stamp from
regular issues – a bi-color design was created. Two-color stamps were
uncommon at the time.
The stamp was designed by Clair Aubrey
Huston at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Huston had trouble
finding a photograph of the plane to model for the stamp’s design, as
only 6 Curtiss Jenny planes in the world had been specially modified to
carry mail. In a stroke of luck, the very plane engraved onto the stamp
(Jenny #38262) was chosen for the inaugural airmail flight!
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