If you’ve been watching Season Three of The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation, you’ve already gotten to learn about artifacts from our collection that include the quilts of Susana Allen Hunter, the Herschell-Spillman carousel, and the 1957 Cornell-Liberty Safety Car.  We’re always working far ahead on these stories, though, so we’re currently digitizing artifacts for upcoming stories.

One segment will feature Curator of Transportation Matt Anderson explaining the origins of air mail. While sending a letter or package overnight may seem mundane today, it was once new and exotic. Daring pilots captured public attention, as demonstrated by the 1930 publication Couriers of the Clouds: The Romance of the Air Mail.

See more artifacts related to air mail by visiting our Digital Collections—and keep watching The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation to learn more!

Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.

Additional Readings:

• Just Added to Our Digital Collections: Detroit News Photographic Negatives
  
• Neil Armstrong: Reluctant Hero
  
• Amelia Earhart: Designing Fashion to Finance Flying
  
• Reliability Tours Land Public Trust

correspondence, communication, flying, 20th century, The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl, aviators, airplanes