The twelve 'Wild Birds of the Month' airgraphs that RAR sent to Master Richard Williamson are presented below. They are of varying quality, due no doubt to the involved production method of airgraphs – a system invented by the Eastman Kodak company in the 1930s in conjunction with Imperial Airways to reduce the weight of letters being sent by air. Letters were written on a special form which was photographed on a roll of film. The negatives were then sent by aeroplane to England, where they were developed into photographs 11 x 14 cms. This photograph was then folded just below the address, put into an envelope and then sent to the recipient. In the Second World War this system was adopted by the armed forces and was known as the Army Postal Service, or APS. It would seem to have been very labour intensive, but apparently saved enormous and precious weight and space on transport planes.
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