Front:
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STRATION
圍家藍
LE
THE FIRST AIR VOYAGE IN AMERICA
January 9,1793
Woodcut by Charles R. Gardner
Back:
4972
"America s first flying field" was the yard of the old Walnut
Street Prison, at the southeast corner of Sixth and Walnut Streets,
Philadelphia-site of the present Home Office of The Penn
Mutual Life Insurance Company. There, on January 9, 1793,
Jean Pierre Blanchard, a citizen of France, ascended in a
hydrogen-filled balloon in the presence of President Washington
and a great assembly. The aeronaut carried a letter of intro-
duction from Washington, "the first American air mail." Max-
imum altitude reached was 5,813 feet; distance 15 miles; time
46 minutes.
SEE YOUR LOCAL PENN MUTUAL REPRESENTATIVE
ONE
