Identifier1987-09-22-B_image_001SourceThe Claud V. O'Callaghan Early Airmail Collection (1987-09-22-B), Box 1, Folder 6DescriptionPhotographic group portrait of an airmail baseball team from Seattle, Washington, posing in front of a Stearman aircraft, circa 1927-1928. The typed caption on verso credits them as the first air mail baseball team in the United States. Identified people include Varney Air Lines traffic manager Claud V. O'Callaghan (8th from left), Seattle Postmaster C. M. Perkins (in cockpit of plane), and Assistant Postmaster General Warren Irving Glover (7th from left).
Typed caption on verso: "[First part cut off] ...up for a game with these follows [fellows], the first airmail baseball team to be organized in the United States. Their home post office is in Seattle, Washington, and they've made things more than lukewarm in the northwest, even giving the Seattle Indians a run for their money. Directly behind the big 'air mail' bull's eye is Claud V. O'Callaghan [handwritten note: "8th from left"], traffic manager for Varney Air Lines, pioneer northwest air mail operators. He's tipped the chucker off to an Immelman [Immelmann] Turn toss that has the bushers guessing for miles around. And Postmaster C.M. Perkins of Seattle, 'daddy' of the northwest air mail service is seen in the cockpit of the mail ship waiting to take off."
[Group portrait of air mail baseball team from Seattle], [1987-09-22-B_image_001]. Museum of Flight Digital Collections, accessed 18/05/2026, https://digitalcollections.museumofflight.org/nodes/view/1220