Delta Air Lines

Delta Airlines began in Macon, Georgia in 1924 as a crop dusting company called Huff Daland Dusters. The company moved to Monroe, Louisiana in 1925 and soon had the largest privately owned aircraft fleet in the world. In 1928 the company was renamed Delta Air Service. Passenger operations began in 1929, and in 1934, the company secured a contract to deliver mail on a southern route that stretched from Texas to South Carolina. In 1941, the company established its corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and in 1945 changed its name to Delta Airlines, Inc. After years of directing its resources towards the war effort, Delta entered a period of rapid growth, in part through a string of mergers. In 1953 Delta merged with Chicago and Southern Airlines, and followed by absorbing Northeast Airlines in 1972 and Western Airlines in 1987. In 1991, Delta acquired the transatlantic routes of Pan American World Airways and became a major provider of worldwide service.

From the description of Delta Air Lines Public Relations Department photographs of Atlanta, Georgia, 1953-1972 (Atlanta History Center). WorldCat record id: 191736631