New York City Postmaster Thomas G. Patten and airmail pilot Lt. Torrey Webb
Description: Postmaster Patten is photographed handing Lt. Webb a bag of airmail letters for one of the first regularly scheduled airmail flights in the United States. On May 15, 1918, the United States officially established airmail service between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., under the direction of the Post Office Department, using army aircraft and pilots. The army pilots chosen to fly that day were Lieutenants Howard Culver, Torrey Webb, Walter Miller and Stephen Bonsal. Lt. Torrey Webb carried the first day's mail in this Curtiss Jenny aircraft numbered 38278 from a temporary airmail field at Belmont Park, Long Island, New York to Bustleton Field, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Creator/Photographer: Unidentified photographer
Medium: Black and white photographic print
Culture: American
Geography: USA
Date: 1918
Collection: U.S. Airmail Service
Repository: National Postal Museum
Accession number: A.2008-15
Persistent URL: arago.si.edu/index.asp?con=2&cmd=1&id=194367
New York City Postmaster Thomas G. Patten and airmail pilot Lt. Torrey Webb
Description: Postmaster Patten is photographed handing Lt. Webb a bag of airmail letters for one of the first regularly scheduled airmail flights in the United States. On May 15, 1918, the United States officially established airmail service between New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., under the direction of the Post Office Department, using army aircraft and pilots. The army pilots chosen to fly that day were Lieutenants Howard Culver, Torrey Webb, Walter Miller and Stephen Bonsal. Lt. Torrey Webb carried the first day's mail in this Curtiss Jenny aircraft numbered 38278 from a temporary airmail field at Belmont Park, Long Island, New York to Bustleton Field, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Creator/Photographer: Unidentified photographer
Medium: Black and white photographic print
Culture: American
Geography: USA
Date: 1918
Collection: U.S. Airmail Service
Repository: National Postal Museum
Accession number: A.2008-15
Persistent URL: arago.si.edu/index.asp?con=2&cmd=1&id=194367