Help Signatures Shushan 1934 Dedication Cover

Found this cover signed by Shushan, postmaster ....

i am not so good at figuring out what the other signatures are..

i it states cachet.... but cant figure out last part and name

would appreciate any info and help with names and signatures...

1 signed v pres...but name dont match with v pres at the time

Your cover is what's referred to as an event cover - in this case the dedication of Shushan Airport (since renamed), located near New Orleans . The signature of Shushan is more than likely a relative. Your cover is also signed by the acting postmaster at the time. The cachet was prepared by the Crescent City Stamp Club and Mr. Cromwell was probably the vice president of this club. The club president and cachet maker also signed it, as well as another local dignitary.

This cover is listed in the American Air Mail Catalog's Fifth Edition, Volume 3 in the Airport Dedication Cover section as number G15 with a catalog value of $1. The Shushan autograph is that of Abe Shushan who was a political crony of the Governor of Louisiana at the time and who was given the political position as heading New Orleans Board of Levee Commissioners who controlled all of the land along the banks of the river. This airport was a pet project of Abe since it was being built on land under his jurisdiction - along the levee. Abe was not modest and ensured that the airport was named after himself. A few years later, in 1939, Abe was finally caught with his hand too deep into the cookie jar and he was convicted of embezzlement and fraud. Because of that they renamed the airport to New Orleans Airport since it would not sit well with the voters to have their main airport named after a criminal who had made off with large amounts of taxpayer money.

As was already pointed out by Jenny2U, the other signatures are of local lesser dignitaries and stamp collectors who were involved with the local business community and the private cachet that the businesses sponsored. There are no pilot autographs on this cover unfortunately, though having a famous crook on it makes it interesting.

Hi Jenny2U,

thank you for the help. the signature of Shushan is his own, he was there that day and signed a few, his signature checks out as well.
as far as my digging got me Cromwell was not vice pres of the stamp club or the association of commerce.

the other 2 signatures are unreadable for me

hoping someone can help me out on them

Kimo,

thank you so much. is the listing for a "plain" one or with autographs?

and another question Kimo, if I may, covers with pilot autographs are more desirable?

Cachet Maker is Emil A Thurman, as evidenced by the signature and the mark on the back of the envelope. Others are a little more difficult, I agree.

Hi Dutch.

On airport dedication covers any signatures that are not of the pilot add no value in the eyes of airport dedication cover collectors. Pilot autographs do add value, but it depends on who was the pilot. If it was a famous pilot then the added value can be moderate to high. For example with this particular airport, Eddie Rickenbacker and Jimmy Doolittle were hired as advisors on the design of it. Given their fame, had they flown covers from this airport and autographed them the covers would have added value in the range of $50 to $75 because they are so famous. If it was flown by a pilot who was not so famous then the added value of a pilot autograph can be between $3 and $10 depending on how unknown they are. On the other hand postmaster autographs, local political figure autographs, local business group member autographs, local stamp club officer autographs, etc. are not seen by airport dedication cover collectors as adding any value so your cover is still something that would normally be found in a dealer's "Dollar Box" or sell on ebay for an amount in that range. The good news about this, though, is that if you want to collect US airport dedication covers the catalog lists them all and you can collect them for a very modest amount of money.

Kimo

Kimo,

thank you so much for this info, very helpful.
because I am curious who they are (the ones signed) I still want to try to find out, even if there is no value in it. I contacted the club that make the cachet (still exists) and they are trying to help me further. I have a 2500 cover lot to go through so a catalog would be great. do I need all 3 volumes? looked at the website but not very clear if need all 3. the lot is FFC, Dedication airport, jet and helicopter ffc and event covers. most 1925/30-1960.

thank you for your help again

one a quick one, do they list pilot names and autographs as well? the cataloge?

Whenever the pilot and/or copilot are known, the American Air Mail Catalog lists their names. Sometimes the illustrations of the covers that go with many of the listings have pilot autographs on them so you can see what they look like in those cases, but many of the illustrations do not show covers with autographs.

The American Air Mail Catalog is not written by a wealthy private company like many other catalogs, rather it is written by dedicated volunteers who are the experts in their areas. As such, the AAMC is not issued regularly. The last complete set of sections was in the Fifth Edition which includes 5 hard cover volumes each with many sections with the first one issued in 1974 and the last one in 1985. There are also two pricing supplements to this set, one issued in 1983 and the second in 1990. Then the American Air Mail Society decided to update this set of catalogs and began issuing the Sixth Edition with its Volume 1 being released in 1998, Volume 2 in 2003 and Volume 3 in 2004. By the time volunteers had been rounded up to begin additional Volumes in the Sixth Edition it was decided to revise the catalog to make it even more detailed and more photos of covers and so the Seventh Edition was created before the Sixth had been completed. Volume 1 of the Seventh edition was released in 2014, Volume 2 was released in 2016 and Volume 3 was just released this year in 2017. More volumes are planned in the coming years. After this set is fully released the thinking as of now is that this will be the last printed Edition and in the future electronic updates will be used and referenced to the Seventh Edition.

Which Edition and which volumes you will need will depend on what covers you want to look up. For example, the best volume for airport dedications is the Sixth Edition, Volume 1, though there are some that are no longer listed in this volume that are listed in the earlier Fifth Edition, Volume 3, the best one for jet flights is the Sixth Edition, Volume 2, the best one for Helicopter and Autogiro flights is the Fifth Edition, Volume 5. All of these are FFC (first flight covers) as are all of the other sections in the other Editions and Volumes. First flight cover collecting is a very wide area with many sub-specialties. Perhaps a good place to start, for identification purposes rather than values might be to buy Volumes 1 through 5 of the Fifth Edition. You can get these on ebay for not much money. The Sixth Edition has more up to date values, and the Seventh Edition is the one if you really want to know what the latest values are, but those two editions are not as comprehensive as the Fifth Edition.

Kimo,

just ordered American Air Mail Catalogue, Fifth Edition, Cplt set Incl. 1983 Price Supplement from ebay. thank you, probally will take a week +to arrive but I will let yiou know what I think of it.

thank you for your helkp