Returned to sender and back again in 77 years
Published: October 5, 2005
Jackson Taylor, head of the stamp department at Ferris Stamp Coin in Albany, said he’s seen a few of the Albany airport commemoration souvenirs over the years.
“Through this period of time, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, it was a popular area of collecting, because this was a time when there were a lot of airports dedicated,” Taylor said.
Shipman may have been a pilot or aviation buff who attended many such events, collecting commemorative postage items as mementos along the way, Taylor said.
Neither the stamp nor the letter has much monetary value — perhaps $10 all together, Taylor estimated. But it is a fine specimen of local history, he said.
“It celebrates the beginning of the growth of the Capital District,” he said. “Exciting times.”
The 5-cent stamp was a recent issue. “This particular stamp came out on July 25, 1928, and it essentially cut the airmail rate in half, a move designed to increase the amount of airmail traffic,” Jackson said.
The price cut came along just as Albany leaders were striving to elevate the city’s status through the new airport mail hub. Though commercial passenger and cargo service had not yet arrived, the mail business was a fully sufficient cause for celebration.
“This is a momentous occasion in the history of the city,” the Times Union proclaimed.
“A city without the foresight to build an airport for the new traffic may soon be left behind,” declared then-Albany Mayor John Boyd Thacher II, who led the airport development effort.
“That still says it today,” said O’Donnell.
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