Communication and Transportation
[Below] Rand McNally and Company. “Aviation Map of United States: Featuring Landing Fields.” Printed map on sheet 69 × 117 cm. From rear pocket of The Complete Camp Site Guide and Latest Highway Map of U.S.A., Together with Official Directory of Aeroplane Landing Fields (Waterloo, Iowa: United States Touring Information Bureau, 1923) [Historic Maps Collection].
After World War I, many American fighter pilots became barnstormers, venturing into small communities across the nation to entertain crowds with their aerial antics and to offer rides for hire. At the same time, the United States Postal Service began experimenting with air mail service. Commercial aviation began on a very small scale during the mid-to-late 1910s in Florida. This map, therefore, provides a snapshot of this very early, first stage of American aviation, before the creation of the great airlines like Pan American Airways (1927), which would radically change everything about flying.
