Finding Aids

Capital Airlines was a commercial airline for the eastern, southern, southeastern, and midwestern United States from 1936 to 1961. It was the fifth largest airline in the United States. The airline was the first to offer service from the west to Washington D.C., coach class service, in-flight television, and jet-powered commercial aircraft. This collection includes materials related to Capital Airlines predecessor company, Clifford Ball Airlines, and materials created under its former name, Pennsylvania Central Airlines. There is also materials related to the Capital Airline Association. The collection documents the history of the airlines, its aircraft and employees.

The collection consists of photographs taken during the first years of the United States Post Office Department air mail service. Many of these photographs are portraits of individual air mail service pilots. The first use of air mail in the United States occurred in September, 1911, while the first air mail route from Washington to New York via Philadelphia started in 1918. A transcontinental route was established by 1920. In 1925 the government transitioned out of the air mail business with the passage of the Kelly Air Mail Act, which called for commericial airlines to bid on air mail routes established by the Post Office.