Christmas Seals of Former Days

You probably know the Christmas seals the Lung Association puts out every year as a fundraiser-- I seem to recall a time when they mailed them to you before asking you to pay, but now apparently you have to order them. They've been putting them out since 1907, and you can see a nifty gallery of seals since 1920 on their site. However, if you have ever experienced them live, you'll know they don't come one by one, as shown in the gallery--they come in massive sheets, usually in different designs, sometimes with designs spanning several seals. Also, they weren't just made in the United States-- different countries had their own designs. 

Luckily, I have a nice little collection of these, coming from my late grandmother. It is in no way complete, but it's fun to see the vintage sheets and international seals--and lots of great graphic design! 

personal collection

1937

personal collection

 1944

personal collection

1945

Letters From Home

Soldiers reading and writing home, from World War One to Korea.

© IWM (B 15363)

A British soldier reads a letter in his dugout, Germany, 1945. Source

© IWM (BF 522)

A soldier writes a letter home from Korea, 1951-53. Source

LIFE/© Time Inc.

American soldiers read letters (and make fudge!) during a quiet moment, Italy, 1944. Source

By Air Mail

More photographs of those postal men and their flying machines. The sequel, of course, to this blog's first airmail post .

The first day of airmail service in the United States, May 15, 1918, with pilot Lt. Torrey Webb. Source

Unloading the first airmail plane to fly across the continent in 1924, at Omaha, Nebraska. Source

Pilot Eddie Gardner with his plane, 1918. Source

Pilot Robert Shank (one of the first four airmail pilots) after a crash, 1918. Source

The airmail field and hangar at Omaha, Nebraska, 1927. Source

Airmail plane taking off, undated. Source

Photograph of pilot Arthur Roy Smith, who flew for the airmail service from 1923 until his death in a crash in 1926. Despite the skill of the pilots, crashes were sometimes unavoidable and several pilots were killed in the decade of airmail.  Source

Pilot John F. Milanzo, c. 1924. He flew with the airmail service from 1923-1927, when he sadly became the last pilot killed while working for the airmail service, his plane crashing in an April snowstorm. Source

Pilot Lt. James Edgerton and his sister, 1918. Edgerton was one of a group of army pilots who were the first to fly mail for the Postal Service. Source

Pilot William Carroll, c.1921. Sadly, in February of that year he and two other men were killed when their airmail plane burst into flames and crashed. Source

Pilot William C. Hopson in winter flying gear, c.1926. Source

Letters From Home

Photographs of soldiers writing letters are quite common among official photos of the First World War-- it was in the interests of officials to reassure those at home that it wasn't so bad, after all, and seeing the boys on the front writing and reading letters from home was tremendously reassuring. Soldiers did, of course, write plenty of letters...even if the worst parts were usually omitted from correspondence,  by individual choice as well as by official censorship. I find these types of photographs very moving, knowing just how much it must have meant to the poor men at the front to hear from home, and to those at home to know their loved ones were still all right, for at least another day. 

All but the last are from the World War One Official Photographs collection of the National Library of Scotland.

Officer writing on sandbags. Source

Gas sentry writing a postcard. Source

Gunners. Source

Soldiers with letters in a captured German dugout. Source

Gas sentry. Source

Source.

Scottish soldier writing on a staircase to nowhere. Source

Portuguese soldiers writing. Source

Letters in the trenches. From the Dutch National Archives. Source

Par Avion

Possibly the thing I love the most about adventuring through online archive collections is how you can come across something you never would have thought to look up, and never would have thought you'd find interesting, and then be fascinated. There's something about seeing the faces and scenes of days gone by that's just so compelling [I've started to think I really should have studied modern history!]. Of course today's post is a case in point. I was skipping through the Flickr Commons and came across the first photograph here, thought it was great and turned to the collection it's a part of -- and become fascinated with the early days of airmail in the United States!

A very quick context-- airmail service started in May 1918 between major cities on the East Coast, initially using army pilots and planes. By 1924 trans-continental service had been introduced, with the advent of lighted runways-- important when it took 30 hours to cross the country by plane!

All right, on to the really interesting bit-- as ever, the pictures. All from the Smithsonian Postal Museum, with more details on the linked pages.

Airmail plane landing in a snowstorm, 1920. Source

A group of men and pilots with plane. Sitting on the plane is Eddie Gardner, one of the first airmail pilots. 1918. Source

Army Air Corps pilots Major Reuben Fleet and Lt. George Boyle, some of the first to fly airmail. The two of  them are admiring Fleet's watch -- each of the army corps pilots was presented with a new watch in honour of their historic flights. 1918. Source

A posed photograph with the postmaster general and a military officer presenting pilot James Hill with a ceremonial bundle of mail for the very first scheduled transcontinental airmail flight. July 1, 1925. Source

And, well, not all the flights went so well. A crashed airmail plane in 1918, with pilot Lt. Webb (who was obviously all right, luckily!) climbing the body. Source

Airmail pilot Dean Smith, c. 1924. The Smithsonian has an interesting (and lucky!) story about him which I recommended reading here [which is, of course, also the source]. 

An autographed photograph of pilot E. Hamilton Lee, taken in the 1920s but signed 1949. Lee flew with the Post Office for most of 1918-1927, and then with United Airlines until he retired in 1949, having flown longer and farther than any other living pilot. Source