Early American Airmail Envelopes

Many people are under the impression that the envelopes illustrated on these pages were created for stamp collectors and the making of covers. While that is true for the Special Flight envelopes, it is not the case for the majority of the envelopes. They do not realize that Air Mail was a somewhat new phenomenon and that these envelopes were largely created for the public to purchase. They were distinctive to aid the postal employees in sorting the air mail from the regular mail when it was received for processing.

The reason most of the illustrations you will view are on philatelic covers is that people did not keep their ordinary mail. Those envelopes used by stamp collectors had additional cachets applied to them and are considered collectible. That is why many of these fantastic envelopes still exist.

I created this page due to my astonishment at the number of varieties of printed airmail envelopes used in the United States during the 1920s through the 1970s, and out of boredom.

I needed a break from my major collecting interests and concentrated on a side-line interest that involved event covers from the 1930s. At the time, I had no idea there had been so many airmail envelope designs available to the public, and how attractive many of them are.

All of the images portrayed show the original cover on the left, and a digitally reworked image on the right. They are the same envelopes with the non-printed text and images removed, and the covers "cleaned" up. It is surprising how much of the printed envelope design one does not see in the images on the left.

Please note that I am not a dealer and do not have items for sale. While I own some of these covers, others I do not and either copied the images off of the Internet, or was sent them by other collectors. I do not own any of the zepplin covers. There may be inscriptions on the reverse of some of the envelopes, giving information as to who designed them, but if I do not have the cover I do not have that information.

At this point I have illustrated a few foreign Airmail envelopes as well as they are generally quite different from ours.

If anyone can provide more information on any of the designs it would be appreciated and I will post what I think is relevant. It would be great to be able to identify those designs that did not have identifying text on the back of the envelopes.

• September 22, 1929 - It is rather ironic that the first envelope I illustrate does not have any text on it indicating it is an air mail envelope. This is a odd cover and design. It is most likely an air mail envelope as there would be no purpose in creating a design for a regular mail envelope. The cover was mailed a day after the two-day celebration and has a "VIA AIR MAIL" and a flag sticker applied to it.

• September 1, 1934

• May 16, 1927 - This envelope and the one following are both made by the well known cover dealer A. C. Roessler.

• August 1928

• March 5, 1928 - Another Roessler envelope produced for the Lindburgh covers he serviced.

• September 5, 1919 - Another Roessler envelope.

• January 9, 1918 - Another Roessler envelope.

• August 1, 1932

• September 15, 1928 - An early airmail envelope before the colors of red and blue became standardized for airmail envelopes. The markings state "Flown by Courtesy of Vt. Airways Corp."

• August 1, 1928

• February 15, 1929 - I have only seen one other envelope with this design. It was probably awkward as the circle was where the address normally is placed. The space it much too small to have it written within the circle. This address was fine as it was typed. The circle appears to be orange in color, but it is a shade of red.

• November 18, 1929 - This design was most likely made by the same company as the one above. This is also the only cover with this design that I have seen to date.

• May 18, 1934

• February 15, 1932

• September 15, 1929

• October 24, 1930

• June 8, 1931

• February 18, 1930

• May 6, 1932

• May 22, 1932

• June 28, 1935 - This envelopes differs from the above due to the colors of the images in the upper left and right corners, they are blue, whereas the envelope above is orangish-red.

• October 26, 1930

• July 20, 1931

• October 1933 - This envelope is basically the same as the one above except the two bars have been added above and below the writing and stars, and the two large stars at the bottom have been eliminated.

• August 1. 1932 - With the various dirigibles and airships constantly in the news and even the sighting of them not that unusual of an experience it is not surprising that a dirigible image would be used on an envelope. This was used for a cover related to a dirigible flight by a collector. This envelope is smaller in size than the others illustrated.

• June 5, 1931

• March 1, 1932

• November 11, 1930 - This envelopes looks very similar to the one above it but the clouds in the corners only contain single winged airplanes.

• June 10, 1932

• May 12, 1939 - The back of this envelope has the same stripes at the bottom and the same two on the right side, but on the left side instead, Additionally the same VIA AIR MAIL is in the center bottom above the two stripes and there is no PAR AVION and the small red image in in the space on the back. The small red image are the initials "KP".

• August 30, 1944 (?)

• December 13, 1960

• June 10, 1932

• July 4, 1932

• October 2, 1935

• April 4, 1938 - This covers is canceled at the town of the addresee, on what looks like April 4, 1938. The reverse is cancelled at the same city on April 8, 1938.

• December 1, 1932 - This design is very restful in appearance.

• October 2, 1935

• March 2, 1931 - This cover is a mess with all the notations, etc.

• October 27, 1930

• June 5, 1934

• February 1, 1927

• February 1, 1928

• September 4, 1926 - Government envelope with imprinted stamp image

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• August 1, 1928 - Non-governmental envelope.

• August 1, 1928 - Red stripe and plane higher on the envelope and "VIA AIRMAIL" larger and wider.

• June 1, 1928 - Blue "VIA AIR MAIL".

• July 27, 1928 - This was obviously an air mail envelope but it does not state it on the envelope.

• October 15, 1930 - Notice that the lines do not cross. Each quarter is a right angle of one color.

February 1, 1927.

• September 1931

• October 1?, 1930

• July 10, 1930 - This a a very unusual design and looks like one of the old German flags. It is one of only two covers illustrated on these pages that has "For" on it.

• March 5, 1948 - I have seen a cover with the same design used in Bombay, India in 1940.

• February 15, 1937

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• October 18, 1937

• October 6, 1959

• April 23, 1937 - One of the few envelopes I have seen with multiple languages, other than English and French.

• July 17, 1928

• August 1, 1931 - The text on the back of this envelope reads, "Mfd. by J. W. Stoutzenberg, Maplewood, Md., All Rights Reserved."

Frames Around the Edges

More Airmail Envelopes

Red and Blue Striped Edges

Red and Blue Striped Envelopes

Special Event and Airline Envelopes

Trans-Pacific Envelopes

Problem Envelopes

Air Mail Etiquettes

Homemade Airmail Envelopes

Interesting Foreign Envelopes

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