Airmail 1937

Pictures, History, Articles from the past
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David
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Airmail 1937

Post by David »

Airmail (1).jpg
Airmail (1).jpg (415.74 KiB) Viewed 4435 times
Airmail (2).jpg
Airmail (2).jpg (304.99 KiB) Viewed 4435 times
Bruce Osburn
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Re: Airmail 1937

Post by Bruce Osburn »

Interesting item, that envelope. From Hamlet to San Pedro in 32 hours, that's better than today. But what's just as interesting to me are the two postage stamps.

It's widely accepted here on the east coast that St. Augustine, Fla., is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the USA. But those two stamps celebrating the California Pacific International Exposition show a date for San Diego as 1535, fully 30 years before Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed at St. Augustine.

So that raises a question...did there come a time when San Diego was not inhabited for a number of years?
Bruce Osburn
--We live so long as we are remembered... old German adage.
Jody Meacham
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Re: Airmail 1937

Post by Jody Meacham »

Bruce, I found your question fascinating.

I looked up San Diego history and the date that San Diego Bay was discovered by Europeans was 1542. The first Spanish fort and Catholic mission wasn't built there until 1769, much later than St. Augustine and, to me, surprisingly late for a place with such a good natural harbor.

So then I looked up the California Pacific International Exposition, which is what the stamp commemorates. It was held in San Diego in 1935. A stamp history at https://www.mysticstamp.com/Products/Un ... s/773/USA/ says the date "celebrated the 400th anniversary of Coronado’s discovery of the Pacific Southwest." But Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's expedition that explored Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas never entered what is now California and it didn't begin until 1540. The year 1535 is when Coronado arrived in New Spain (Mexico) from Spain, but that doesn't seem particularly important. He's known for the expedition. I looked for important historical events in 1535 but found nothing relating to Coronado, the Pacific or San Diego.

So I didn't buy the stamp website's explanation, and really don't understand why this exposition would have anything to do with Coronado either, except that his name and that of Vasco Nunez de Balboa, first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas, are used for prominent places in the San Diego area. The separate city of Coronado is on the peninsula that separates San Diego Bay from the Pacific. Naval Air Station North Island and Naval Base Coronado are both located on the peninsula. Balboa Park is where the exposition was held and where the famous San Diego Zoo is now.

Another website -- this one for coin collectors at http://coinsite.com/san-diego-californi ... lf-dollar/ -- was more helpful, in a way. It says "Even though a commemorative stamp was issued bearing the dates 1535 and 1935, the California-Pacific International Exposition did not celebrate any particular event or anniversary, and the significance of the earlier date remains a mystery."

So even though it doesn't provide an answer, it seems like someone actually did some research and admitted they came up empty-handed.

I have a guess as to why the date was used, supported by the first paragraph of the second website's description of the event. The exposition was held to help revive San Diego's economy, which -- like everywhere else -- had withered in the Depression. It was almost 400 years since the region was discovered by the Spanish and the organizers wanted to make the event into as big a deal as they could. One way to do that was to use that big round number somehow, so they just slapped on a date that would give them an anniversary ending in a lot of zeros. Sort of the same way we make a bigger deal of anniversaries ending in "5" or "0."

As a sidenote, if that stamp had been postmarked on one of the first day cover commemorative envelopes in 1935, it would be worth about $170, going by the four for sale on eBay. San Pedro, the city where David's stamp was postmarked, was later absorbed into the city of Los Angeles. It's right next to the port city of Long Beach.
Jody Meacham
HHS Class of 1969
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