The program commemorates the 100th anniversary of the first airmail flight, piloted on February 17 and 18, 1911 by Fred Wiseman. Wiseman took off from Petaluma, California and flew 25 miles to Santa Rosa with three letters. Wiseman's plane, a pusher biplane similar to the type developed by Glenn Curtiss, is part of the National Air and Space Museum's collection and is currently on display at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.

The lecture was delivered by National Air and Space Museum Senior Curator Tom Crouch and National Postal Museum Curator Nancy Pope.