Name/Title
Pony Express 1923 Pageant, News Article from 1961Entry/Object ID
AM2015.1.323Scope and Content
Pony Express 1923 Pageant, News Article from 1961. "1923 Pony Express Pageant Included Special Mail Flight".
News photo of an envelope from Lorenz & Co. Kodaks and Photo Supplies 706 Edmond, St. Joseph, MO. The letter was mailed to Omaha NE. This mail was carried by airplane from St. Joseph to Omaha on the special flight which the Post Office department authorized August 31, 1923 in connection with a Pony Express celebration. Below that picture is one of the covers carried in the 1923 enactment of the 1860 Pony Express with a note from the San Francisco postmaster explaining its condition. The note states that the enclosed piece of mail was damaged by abrasion while in transit by Pony Express. It was by Postmaster James F. Powers.
Thirty-eight years ago the old and new in mail transport were contrasted at St. Joseph, Missouri, as mail was carried to Omaha in an airplane while a rider with a mail pouch galloped westward toward San Francisco in a reenactment of the 1860 Pony Express.
The special flight and reenactment of the Pony Express were a part of a celebration at St. Joseph. Covers carried on the special flight and reenactment of the Pony Express are illustrated here through courtesy of Horace D. Westbrooks, Griffin, Georgia.
The air mail cover is listed in the American Air Catalog, which explains that the special flight August 31, 1923 was authorized by the Post Office Department in connection with the Pony Express Pageant at St. Joseph.
The ordinary postmark of St. Joseph was used, but many of the covers carried private cachets.Lexicon
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Person or Organization
James F. PowerPerson or Organization
Westbrooks, Horace D.