• Madame Blanchard: Napoleon’s Chief of Air Services and Pioneer Aeronaut 1810-1819. Commercial Aviation • First Day of Issue. MME. M. BLANCHARD headed the commercial and military air forces (one balloon) under Bonaparte and Louis XVIII, until she was killed by an accident aloft over Paris in 1819. Her work often included appearances at weddings and festivals, etc., where her ascent was the dramatic feature of the day. She was the widow of J. P. Blanchard, first balloonist to carry international air mail (France to England).
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Madame Blanchard, First Day Cover, Stamp Block numbered

From Women Making History: The Revolutionary Feminist Postcard Art of Helaine Victoria Press by Julia M. Allen and Jocelyn H. Cohen

  • THIS FIRST DAY COVER was the first to be created and issued by Helaine Victoria Enterprises, printers, designers, and dealers of memorabilia connected with women's history. It was printed on a hand-fed Chandler & Price letterpress at the Los Angeles Woman's Building, March 1976, in an edition limited to 750. Helaine Victoria Press, non-profit educational organization, 1973-1990. A small handful had the plate block of four stamps which has more value to collectors as it gives the plate and serial number from which the stamps were printed.
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  • HISTORY / Women
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