Here we have a real photo postcard of an early pusher biplane, postmarked Iowa City at half past four on October 13, 1910. A man in a dark suit sits up front in the open frame with one hand near the wheel. The tail fades into white, so the machine looks half made of light. Under a lamp the dark ground gives back a faint silver sheen.
Earl's timing is the odd part. He wrote that he was one of the university "soldier-boys" called on to keep the crowd back while Captain Baldwin flew. A free ticket came with the job. That flight was on October 12, a windy day when Baldwin cut things short and set down in a meadow east of the fairgrounds. The following afternoon brought Iowa's first successful airplane flight and Iowa City's first airplane crash. Earl saw the flight the history books skip, then mailed this card the same day as the two they remember.
The antique postcard came out of serious postcard collector’s estate in . Earl wrote from 104 E. Bloomington St. in Iowa City to Miss Rachel Sykes at 2940 Brattleboro Ave in Des Moines. His "soldier-boys" line suggests he was a University of Iowa student. He asks how her teaching at Drake is going and admits his own work is harder than last year. Then he mourns Saturday's "terrible defeats" of the Iowa teams. Records back him up, with Iowa losing 10-5 at Northwestern and Ames losing 49-0 at Minnesota on October 8.Â
Baldwin was a former circus acrobat and balloon parachutist who built pusher biplanes with steel tubing in place of wood. The Iowa City Commercial Club paid him $2,000 to fly at the Farmer's Fall Festival. On his second flight of the 13th, the plane snagged a barn and threw him about 30 feet. He walked away bruised. The aircraft on the front is an unidentified Curtiss-type pusher with a forward elevator. It is consistent with Baldwin's machines, but no caption or photographer's mark confirms it. Circa 1910, fixed by the Iowa City machine postmark and Earl's European-style date of 13/10/10. Postage is a one-cent green Franklin under a flag cancel.
Measurements: approximately 3.5 by 5.5 inches, unframed. The most noticeable flaw is a scatter of tiny red specks on the front, heaviest at the top left corner. A small white abrasion sits on the left edge at mid-height. Minor wear includes light silvering in the dark ground, pinpoint emulsion spots and soft corners. Even toning covers the back, with a small gray smudge at lower left. The card lies flat with no creases, and every word of the message reads clearly. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
I ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO Boxes). Free shipping on the one-cent eyewitness report.
Earl signed off with "Must stop. Write soon." Somebody kept this card for 116 years, which is better treatment than Baldwin got from that barn.
