Front:
SHINGTON
Ford
BYRD ANTARCTIC
EXPEDITION
USA25
SEP
14
1988
20066
Richard E Byrd
Back:
ADMIRAL RICHARD BYRD
First Day of Issue: September 14, 1988
First Issue Location: Washington, D.C.
Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd made his first trip to
Antarctica in 1928. A commander in the U.S. Navy, Byrd
would become the most famous of all the Antarctic
explorers. Braving the hardships of the frozen tundra,
Byrd and his men landed and set up base on the Ross
Barrier at the Bay of Whales. They named it Little Amer-
ica. The base included a photography lab, an observatory,
a machine shop and a library. By radio, the crew kept in
touch with the rest of the world during the fourteen
months they were there. From Little America, Byrd and
three others took off in a tri-motored airplane — the Floyd
Bennett — on an historic flight which carried them over
the South Pole. On that flight of November, 1929, Admi-
ral Byrd carried the American flag some one thousand
miles farther south than it had ever been before. On other
trips, Byrd continued the study of this fascinating land,
commanding the photographic and scientific study of
some 450,000 square miles of Antarctica, much of it
never before seen by man.
No. 88-56
©1988 The Maximum Card Collection
A Division of Unicover Corporation • Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007
Original painting by Tom McNeely
