Letter permitting Airmail Service use of grounds

October 23, 1918

This letter, dated October 23, 1918, to Captain Benjamin B. Lipsner from the (Chicago) South Park Commissioners general superintendent, grants permission to use Chicago’s Grant Park as an airmail landing field. Airmail pilots Max Miller and Eddie Gardner had landed at Grant Park during their New York-to-Chicago airmail pathfinding flights a month earlier. Lipsner sought permission from the commission to use the park as the Chicago terminus for all airmail flights. The letter grants the service, and the first Cleveland–Chicago flight used the field on May 15, 1919. The service was extended to New York City on July 1, 1919.