Aviation Exhibition postal card
Lincoln Beachey flew the mail each day over Route No. 643,002 at Cedar Falls, Iowa. He carried a total of 3,000 pieces of mail on his two flights from the Country Club golf course to College Hill Park, a distance of about two miles.
The rectangular marking used showed the dates as September 5 and 6, as authorized by the Post Office Department in Washington, DC. Newspaper accounts, however, claimed that the mail flying was postponed until September 6 and 7, although the Cedar Falls postmaster's official report listed the dates as September 5 and 6. Because of conflicting reports and dual dates within the special postmark, it is impossible to differentiate mail flown on one day from that flown on the following day.
The postal card shown here, addressed to Mr. Clarendon Bangs, Savannah, Georgia, bears the rectangular, magenta-colored cachet. It reads, "Aeroplane Mail Service / September 5th And 6th / Cedar Falls, Iowa." The cachet cancels the 1-cent Lincoln indicia. Bangs actively collected mail postmarked at the aerial meets of the period.
