Aviation meet and street circus postcard
At the Aviation Meet and Street Circus held in McLeansboro, Illinois, between September 4 and 6, 1913, pilot Roy N. Francis (d. 1952) transported the mail daily from the aerial post office to a point near McLeansboro's main post office, where he dropped it to postal officials. The public could purchase souvenir postcards for the flight. Francis performed the service under the Post Office Department's authorized Route No. 635,004.
The pictorial cancellation device used was the same as that used on Pioneer #59, except with the dates changed. Francis flew between 1,500 and 2,000 pieces of mail during the meet's three days. Because the same postmark was used for all three days, it is generally impossible to distinguish mail flown on one day from mail flown on another day.
This card, addressed to Miss Gladys Schoemann, St. Louis, Missouri, bears the purple-colored postmark applied on one of the days that Francis carried mail. It reads, "By AERIAL ROUTE / SEPT 4, 5, 6, 1913 / AVIATION FIELD / MCLEANSBORO, ILLS." The aeroplane cancels the 1-cent Washington stamp. Verification of the flight appears in the lower left corner - "Mailed in the Air / By Francis."
