| RefNo | MS/928/4/4/31 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Letter from Frederick Watson, British Consulate General, Philadelphia, to Charles Vernon Boys, St Marybourne, Andover, England |
| Creator | Watson; Frederick (1880-1947); British diplomat |
| Recipient | Boys; Sir Charles Vernon (1855-1944); British physicist and inventor |
| Date | 18 May 1939 |
| Description | Watson notes that he had the pleasure of accepting the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute on Boys's behalf yesterday. A Wetherill Medal was awarded to William Albert Hyde, who asked to be remembered to Boys from a visit in 1913. Watson remembers meeting Boys too, at a Royal Society dinner at the Athenaeum with Sir Albert Seward, last June. He thinks Boys might value a letter delivered in a historic way and he has heard rumoured that a new trans-Atlantic mail service is about to begin.
With an original envelope stamped in blue, with a design showing a Boeing 314 Clipper in flight over the Statue of Liberty and inecsribed 'United States of America, First Flight FAM 18.Trans-Atlantic Air Mail Service.' The envelope is postmarked 20 May 1939 stamped in New York and Marseilles 'Gare-Avion'.
Pan American Airways (Pan Am) inaugurated transatlantic air mail service under scheduled contract (Foreign Air Mail FAM 18) in 1939. The first flight was made on 20 May 1939 by the Boeing Model 314 Yankee Clipper (NC18603) from New York to Marseilles, France. |
| Extent | 2p. |
| Format | Typescript |
| PhysicalDescription | On paper, with envelope |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA8138 | Boys; Sir; Charles Vernon (1855 - 1944); physicist and inventor | 1855 - 1944 |