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!
1918 24¢ Curtiss Jenny,
First U.S. Airmail Stamp |
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