The Dawn of Express Delivery

Last month, The Motley Fool published an update on Amazon's plan, announced five years ago, to use unmanned aircraft to deliver packages: "Amazon Drone Deliveries Are Almost Here." Yesterday, Gossips stumbled upon this article in the Columbia Republican for July 8, 1919, reporting on what was a hundred years ago cutting edge technology in package delivery.

The article in the Columbia Republican was not accompanied by a picture of the hydroplane that landed on the river, but this photograph may provide some idea of what a hydroplane in 1919 looked like.

Miss Bertha Vandenburgh, the recipient of the parcel from Macy's delivered by hydroplane, lived in this house on upper Warren Street.



One can only wonder what the parcel from Macy's contained.

Update: Walter Chatham shared this photograph, which accompanied an article entitled "Special Delivery, 1919" in Mobile Bay Magazine, and suggested that this was more likely the type of hydroplane used to make deliveries along the Hudson River. 

Photo courtesy Hammel's. The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama. Colorization by Dynamichrome Limited

The plane in the picture was used by Hammel's department store in Mobile, Alabama, to make special deliveries to customers along the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CAROLE OSTERINK