Aviation meet post card
Patterson Aviators, Detroit, sent Obert E. Williams to perform at Port Huron, Michigan's Driving Park Aviation Exhibition, held on August 7 and 8, 1915. Patterson also sent Williams to state fairs in Michigan and Wisconsin, both held the following month.
The Post Office Department authorized the transport of mail by air at the exhibition, but because no appropriate fuel could be found on August 7, Williams could not fly. On August 8, he flew 176 pieces of mail on Route No. 637,003 from temporary postal station B at the Driving Park to a point less than two miles from Port Huron's post office. Officials then carried the mail to the post office, postmarked and dispatched it.
Some of the mail had the two-line cachet used as a canceling device. This mail did not receive an additional postmark. Other pieces have the cachet and a Port Huron postmark.
This item, addressed to collector H. A. Truby, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, bears two impressions of the red cachet that reads, "MICHIGAN'S FIRST AEROPLANE MAIL / PORT HURON AUG. 7, 8, 1915." The cachet cancels the 1-cent Washington stamp.
