Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 9, 1941 Officials at the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway accepted the first of t0 large 2-6-6-6 Allegheny steam locomotives from the longtime Ohio-based manufacturer Lima Locomotive Works. This locomotive type’s numbers are due to the fact that it had two leading wheels, two sets of six driving wheels, and six training wheels. The “Allegheny” in... Continue Reading →
August 14, 1919 The U.S. Post Office Department, pushing the bounds of airmail and its applications further than ever before, conducted its first official delivery of mail via plane to a ship after it had already left port to sail across the ocean. This pioneering experiment took place when pilot Cyrus J. Zimmerman flew a... Continue Reading →
On June 6, 1980, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Brenda E. Robinson earned her Wings of Gold at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas. This made her the first black woman to become a U.S. naval aviator. The following year, Robinson made history again when she became the first black woman certified for C-1A carrier... Continue Reading →
July 12, 1922 The U.S. Post Office Department (USPOD), which was replaced by the present-day U.S. Postal Service in 1971, issued the first American stamp depicting a motorcycle. This blue 10-cent U.S. special delivery stamp focuses on a postal messenger making the rounds with a motorcycle. This motorcycle was likely based on a Harley-Davidson model.... Continue Reading →
February 10, 1941 A unique type of transportation for delivering mail via highways in the United States made its inaugural run. This means of mobility was the Highway Post Office, a large motor vehicle that had been specially outfitted to help process and move the mail as quickly as possible over long distances. The origins... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 