Augustus Thomas Post Jr. (December 8, 1873 – October 4, 1952) was an American adventurer who distinguished himself as an automotive pioneer, balloonist, early aviator, writer, actor, musician and lecturer. Post pursued an interest in transportation of every form. In 1898, when Post was 25, following his time at Harvard Law School, he circumnavigated the globe by rail and steamship. He then bought one of the earlier made automobiles, crafted by Charles Duryea, and helped found the Glidden Auto Tours, an automotive distance drive and competition used to promote a national highway system. He was the original founder, in 1902, of what is now the American Automobile Association (AAA), first known as the Auto Club of America. He established the nation's first parking garage, the first bus service, and also received the first driving ticket in New York.
In 1907, Post was one of the first civilians to descend in a submarine. Two years later he became the thirteenth man to fly solo in an airplane. As founder of the Aero Club of America he served as official timer for Orville Wright's historic 57-minute flight at Fort Myer, Virginia in 1908. Early that same year and in winter's cold at Hammondsport, New York, Post worked with Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association where he represented the Aero Club and helped test new equipment and gliders. Post then worked with fellow AEA alumn Glenn Curtiss and was present for the historic flight of the Curtiss June Bug. He also participated in the international Gordon Bennett Balloon Races from 1906 to 1910. In 1910 he set a distance and duration record in a free balloon, flying as aide to Alan R. Hawley in the balloon "America II", a North American record that stood for 95 years.
In 1919, five years after having predicted the possibility of transatlantic travel, Post inspired hotel owner Raymond Orteig to put up the $25,000 prize money for the transatlantic flight competition that was ultimately won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927. Post also made meaningful contributions to the establishment of the US air mail service, and to the creation of one of the first major academic programs in Aeronautical Engineering, which was at New York University.
Outside of his work in transportation, Post was an avid outdoorsman. He was an original member of the Society of the Sons of Daniel Boone which merged to form the Boy Scouts of America in 1910. In addition to his other pursuits, Post performed on Broadway, acted in plays, and wrote books of poetry, an opera, and original songs. In his later life Post worked as part of the National Association for Music in Hospitals, performed with the New York Symphony Chorus, and continued to support the causes and groups he had helped establish. He was a sought-after professional lecturer until his death in 1952 at age 78.
Early life
Post was born to Augustus T. Post Sr. (1832–1891), a banker, and Mary Elizabeth Austin (1844–1893), in Brooklyn, New York, in 1873. He had one sister, Mary Augusta Post, who was a year and a half his senior, and with whom he was close throughout his life. The two children grew up in comfort as their father amassed considerable wealth in banking, becoming the president of Produce Bank.
A year before his death, Post Sr. was associated with the case of bank forger Albert H. Smith, who was convicted of stealing more than $400,000 ($ in dollars) from a series of financial institutions, including Produce Bank. Post Sr. was never alleged to be complicit in the crimes, nor was his fortune considered to be associated with the case.
Both of their parents died when Post and his sister Mary were still teenagers. They inherited their father's fortune and spent their time among the social elites of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Post attended Brooklyn Polytechnic, then went to Amherst College, where he competed as a speed walker in track and field. He also sang second bass in the Glee Club and was a member of the banjo club and the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He received a Masters of Arts in 1895College Student Lists. Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society. and then went to Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Alumni Association. Harvard University Directory, 1913. Boston, MA, USA: Harvard University Press, 1913. from 1895 to 1896.
Automotive achievements Post was a lifelong advocate for improved auto safety and the creation and maintenance of an extensive U.S. highway system.
Early adopter and early traffic tickets Post purchased his first car at a motorcycle rally in 1898. It was made by a Pennsylvanian named Duryea. Two years later, Post commissioned his well-known car White Steamer from Thomas White, who founded the White Motor Company in 1900. The steamer, which was black in color, was nicknamed the "Black White". In his new vehicle, Post set out to test the byways of America and determine their suitability for auto travel.
Post established the city's first parking garage beneath the St. Nicholas skating rink, at 66th Street and Columbus Avenue. He also established the first bus service which ran between the Waldorf Hotel and the Brighton Beach Race Course, giving the horse-drawn carryalls of the day serious competition.
Post was the first in New York to receive tickets for traffic violations. By his own account, his first ticket was given while he was driving in Riverside Drive at 10 miles per hour. He was pulled over by a policeman on a bicycle. He also received the first ticket in Central Park. Parks Commissioner George C. Clausen had banned cars in the park because their noise and because the scent of naphtha irritated the horses. However, in 1900, Willis Holly, secretary of the Park Board, convinced Clausen that horses had become accustomed to steamer vehicles and a small group of drivers were given permits to drive in the park including Post. Though Post was considered an excellent driver, he received an additional ticket for running up on a sidewalk while attempting to park in front of the house of Daniel Sickles, at 23 Fifth Avenue. Post was taken to the headquarters of the Traffic Squad at East 27th Street, where he telephoned Sickles's son, Stanton Sickles, whom he had originally gone to visit, and Sickles came and bailed him out.
In 1903 Post made a drive from Pittsburgh to New York City with friend R. H. Johnston. Though he noted the roads they travelled in Pennsylvania had loose stones and demanded cautious driving, the roads were not prone to washouts like those in New York State. Post told the Pittsburgh Post: "At a very small expense the pike might be resurfaced. It would regain its original prestige and would have the distinction of being the first link in the transcontinental boulevard." Post's vision of a coast to coast highway was made real ten years later with the development of the Lincoln Highway from New York to San Francisco, which did indeed run through Pittsburgh.
Establishing the AAA and the Glidden Auto Tours
During February 1904 Post conceived of an auto cup race like ones that were already popular in Europe, where he had travelled extensively. He and several associates planned to test routes and seek sponsors for the endeavor. In March 1904 Post led fifteen other auto enthusiasts on a drive from New York to St. Louis. The event caught the attention of millionaire automotive enthusiast Charles Glidden, who furnished a cup and put up prize money for whoever finished first. The event was a success and became an annual race known as the Glidden Auto Tours. In 1902, Post who was first a member and then Vice President of the Long Island Automobile Club, then the founder of the Auto Club of America.
Post drove his White Steamer in all three of the first Glidden tours from 1904 to 1906. Because the car was custom-made, the cost of the Steamer exceeded the modern day cost of a Rolls-Royce.
Ballooning records
Post participated in balloon races, including the Gordon Bennett races of 1906, 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911. He survived a number of aeronautic disasters, including the rupture of the balloon "Conqueror" in which he was flying with A. Holland Forbes in the Gordon Bennett Race in Berlin in 1908. The balloon fell 4,775 feet and crashed through the roof of a house, but the men were unharmed.
Post's best known ballooning achievement was when he served as aide to Alan Hawley in the 1910 Gordon Bennett race flying the balloon "America II". The race's ten balloons set off from St. Louis, Missouri; two days later, Post and Hawley landed in a remote, uninhabited area of Quebec near Lake St. John. They trekked through the Canadian wilderness, slowed by Hawley, who had injured a knee just after landing. Post, who had been moose hunting in Canada with Ezra Fitch (of Abercrombie & Fitch Co.) in 1905, had some knowledge of the terrain. Also, though he had grown up in Brooklyn, Post had spent summers with his family at the Mohonk Mountain House near the Catskill Mountains of New York, where he had hiked and developed skills as a woodsman. While the balloonists were lost in Canada, Post created lean-tos to keep them dry when snow and rain fell, and he caught fish, using improvised lures, to supplement their food stores.
Word of Hawley and Post's disappearance ran on the front pages of newspapers across the nation. As the days stretched into a week and the men still had not been heard from, search parties were formed. After ten days in the wilderness, Hawley and Post found a trapper's tent and then ran into two locals, Joseph Pedneaude and Joseph Simard, out on a hunting trip. The men took the balloonists back to the closest town, Chicoutimi, from which they were able to send telegrams to family and friends. They then made their way to a train terminus and then home.
At Grand Central Station in New York, Hawley and Post were met with a hero's welcome and informed they had set a distance and duration record of 1,173 miles in 44 hours and 25 minutes for travel in a free balloon, a North American Gordon Bennett record that stood for 95 years. Post's role in the adventure, particularly his survival skills, caught the attention of Daniel Carter Beard, who had founded the Society of the Sons of Daniel Boone for boys in 1905. The Society emphasized outdoorsmanship, self-sufficiency, and pioneering spirit. Post became a governing member of the Society, which was merged into the Boy Scouts of America later that same year in 1910 with Post continuing his interest.
Early aviator
Thirteenth man to fly
While Post continued ballooning, he was also drawn to the emerging innovation of heavier-than-air flight. He wrecked several planes before successfully taking to the air, and press outlets suggested his signature Van Dyke beard—which was somewhat uncommon at the time— might be to blame for his difficulties. In 1908, Post became thirteenth man to fly. He was an original founder of the Aero Club of America and served as its first secretary. As such he served as official timer for Orville Wright's record-setting 57 minute flight at Ft. Myer, Virginia, on September 9, 1908.
Aerial Experiment Association Also in 1908, Post worked with and supported Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), a group of Canadian and American engineers who worked together for two years and developed the tricycle landing gear and wingtip ailerons, among other innovations. After the AEA disbanded, Post worked with fellow AEA alum Glenn Curtiss on the design and testing of Curtiss' aircraft. Post wrote a biographical essay about Curtiss entitled "The Evolution of a Flying Man", which ran in The Century in 1910. The two collaborated on the Curtiss Aviation Book, published the following year, which marked the start of Post's writing career.
Promoter of aviation expansion