Can Someone Explain This Cover

I am having a hard time as I dont know how to look this cover up and understandin b all the cancel marks any input appreciated

Attorney Gorham mailed himself a letter so that he would have this cover. As far as I can tell, he must have been in Boston when he mailed the piece. It left for Chicago where it was loaded on the first airmail flight from there to Fort Worth and then sent on to D.C. via New York. What a trip! It's a nice cover.

Hopefully someone else can add to this--and correct me, if necessary. I still don't know how these covers were arranged. That is, did a service handle the arrangements or did the Post Office simply follow attached instructions or perhaps just read the print on the envelope?

This link might be of interest to you as the cover shows the 'Air-mail saves time' slogan. http://stamps.org/userfiles/file/My...el312838.pdf

Thanks for the information.Looking at it I knew it had to have a story .I have so many covers its hard to know what is a good one I find them all anazing to think whose hands it went through almost 100 years ago.In the collection is also a fascimile of the first day covers of the graf zepplin do you know what those were used for

If you are interested in first flight covers you should consider joining the American Air Mail Society and purchasing their catalogs that identify first flights.

This cover was flown on the first flight of Contract Air Mail (CAM) number 3 or CAM3. It is listed in the CAM section of the American Air Mail Catalogs as "CAM 3S1". On May 12, 1926 the National Air Transport Company began flying airmail from Chicago to Dallas via Moline, St Joseph, Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, and finally arriving in Dallas. The return flight along the same route and stops was also flown that day. They flew the mail in single engine Curtiss biplanes that were recently designed and built specifically for flying the mail along the various CAM routes around the country. Covers were flown between all of the cities in both directions so obtaining a full set of one from each city pair in each direction would be a fun project.

The US Post Office arranged to have a special large round rubber stamped cachet for these first flight covers and unfortunately yours did not get this cachet. The normal way collectors obtained their properly cancelled and cacheted first flight covers was they followed instructions that the Post Office had given out in advance on how to prepare their covers and where to send them inside a separate shipping envelope so they would be properly cancelled, cacheted and carried. It was possible to send covers directly from other places such as this one was with instructions on the envelope to include it on the first flight, but often such covers did not get the full treatment such as the special cachet and this is an example of this. It was flown on the first flight of this city pair, but it is not as collectible to most first flight cover collectors without the special cachet and with the extraneous cancels.

The AIRMAIL SAVES TIME with the pictoral biplane from Boston is a very commonly used cancellation from this era. It was supplied to many cities around the US, especially cities with air mail service to encourage people to send their mail on the new air mail system.

This link may be of interest about the cover in question:

http://www.aerodacious.com/ccCAM003.HTM

Thanks I appreciate all the info.I had never really seen much on first day covers until I inhereted my aunts collection and there is so many its hard to get information and to know exactly what to look for on them

This is not a first day cover, it is a first flight cover. First day covers are envelopes or cards that were mailed on the first day that a new stamp was released. The cancellation on the new stamp would coincide with that first day of use of that particular new stamp. A first flight cover is rarely also a first day cover though in rare occasions a new stamp was released on the same day that the first flight was flown. A first flight is an envelope or card that was put on board an aircraft (usually an airplane but it could also be a zeppelin) that was flown from one city to another city where that airmail service was being opened up for the first time. In the case of your illustrated cover at the beginning of this thread it is a first flight cover, not a first day cover. The stamps that were used had been released by the post office for public use well before the day this cover was flown. This cover was the very first time that air mail was flown from Chicago to Fort Worth and this cover was on board that biplane that flew this inaugural flight. First flight cover collecting is a different area of collecting from first day cover collecting. Both are fun and it is up to a collector whether to focus on one or the other, or even to have two different collections and collect both areas.

Joining collector clubs or societies is a great way to connect with even more people who share your interest and passion for collecting whatever areas you like best. For general collecting of stamps there is the American Philatelic Society. For those who collect first flight covers the best group is the American Air Mail Society and you can join by going to their website at http://www.americanairmailsociety.org . There are also societies for first day cover collectors, navy ship cover collectors, military censored mail collectors, etc. etc. etc. Most of them sell good catalogs of material in their area of interest and if one is going to collect something, spending some money up front to learn about the material, what to look for, how to identify things, and the values and so on is a really smart investment.