My first impression of the photo of the "aviator's gloves" was that
they reminded me of blacksmith's gloves. Mitten is the proper term,
gloves have sheaths for all the fingers and thumb.
After reading the letter from Frank Becsey,I checked the census
records 1930 Peoria Peoria County Illinois
If the Frank Becsey that wrote the letter describing the events in 1925
is the same Frank Becsey found in the 1930 Peoria census,
Frank's father Louis Becsey was a blacksmith for the railroad in 1930.
I would start this search effort with a look at gloves/mittens used
in different occupations.aviation /blacksmithing /railroading.
The National Museum of Flight might offer an opinion on the mittens.

This is so cool. I went to college in Bloomington-Normal, and then I lived in Peoria after that. It's like The History Detectives are calling me.

Right off the bat, Mr. Becsey got his dates wrong. Charles Lindbergh didn't sign his oath of Mail Messengers until April 13, 1926.

http://www.charleslindbergh.com/pdf/lindyoath.pdf

I have a newspaper here in my file ... headline is "Lindbergh Arrives Safely at Paris"
text reads "Captain Charles Lindbergh, the flying mail man, arrived today by air from New York"
Article goes on to say as soon as he landed he passed out in a faint, recovered and said "so this is Paris, I did it". He was greeted by 30,000 people. (May 21, 1927. The Daily Gazette, Sterling Illinois.)

This is a start -- tells us that he was a mail man at least.

With all due respect to Kelly Mesch and Frank Bescey I think it
should be pointed out that the storyline that Kelly narrates in her
query to the History Detectives doesn't mesh with the storyline
in the letter written by Frank Bescey. As Michelle pointed out
the 1925 date is off,though we might allow for a slightly faulty
memory 74 years after the event. Mr Bescey makes no mention
of the plane malfunctioning or an unexpected landing,nor does
he write of sitting on a bench and speaking with the pilot. Mr.
Bescey places the event at Mt Hawley golf course in or near
Peoria and speaks of the landing and delivering of the mail to
a postal emplyee. The US Postal Service could verify the accuracy
of the location as the established landing spot in the route.Mr.
Bescey's letter describes an event that could have happened in 1926
when compared to the historical timeline of Charles Lindbergh's
role in aviation postal history,even a glance at Wikipedia's bio of
Lindbergh establishes Springfield Illinois and Peoria as drop points
for the mail in the St. Louis to Chicago mail service. Kelly Mesch's
narrative refers to Stanford Illinois which is near Shirley Ilinois
where Lindbergh crashed November 1926(Lindbergh also had a crash
near Ottawa illinois in Sept.1926) Mr Bescey refers to a plane crash
near Covell Illinois near Bloomington in 1926. Bloomington is near
Stanford. Mr Beckey speaks of "Lindbergh's" plane circling and landing,
and hoping to "meet Lindbergh" but only "saw" Lindbergh waving from
the plane as he prepared to take off from the "other end of the field"
From the narrative one would suppose that Mr.Beskey knew it was
Lindbergh and wanted to meet him though Mr. Lindbergh didn't become
famous until 1927 with his trans-Atlantic flight. One might argue that
depending on news coverage Mr Lindbergh might have been famous
in Illinois in 1926 for being involved in plane crashes. According to
Wikipedia three other men,Philip Love,Thomas Nelson ,and Harlan Gurney
also piloted planes in the St.Louis/Chicago mail services, so again by
checking with the US Postal Services we might establish if any of these men
may have been delivering mail to Peoria. It seems to me that had Mr Bescey
been concerned with returning the gloves to Lindbergh or anybody else
who might have left them on the bench, he would simply have left them in care
of whoever was working at the airfield,as Mr Bescey infers that he knew
of the scheduled drops at the airfield.

I sent a query and invitiation to historians/librarians/archivists/
staff or members to participate in this online investigation to:

Charles Lindbergh homepage,a Spirit of St.Louis Project
a Charles Lindbergh discussion site

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian Postal History Museum

Lindbergh along with Rob and Frank Robertson applied for Contract Air Mail Route No.2 flying from Chicago to St Louis. Lindbergh flew a de Haviland DH-4 over the route, with stops at Springfield and Peoria. Lindbergh had a ninety-nine percent airmail delivery efficiency without proper equipment and landing facilities.

Futher information can be found here, including a copy of Lindbergh's Certificate of Oath of Mail Messengers.

http://www.charleslindbergh.com/airmail/

To view a timeline of the life of Charles Lindbergh go to:
www.charleslindbergh.com/timeline

Frank Bescey's letter refers to a a field opposite the Mt Hawley golf
course in Peoria Ill. as the place where Lindbergh's plane landed.
Information obtained from at the Peoria Historical Society:
Mt Hawley Airport started operating in 1921. I've contacted the Peoria
Historical Society for a city directory search for Frank Bescey in
1925/1926 as well as any information about services or staffing
available at the Mt Hawley airport in 1926

I sent a query to the Mt Hawley Airport in Peoria asking for any
information they might provide about the history of the airport/
Lindbergh and the other postal service pilots, the gloves.
I sent them the link to the PBS website to view the gloves and
the letter,perhaps they will weigh in with some perspective
and information.

At www.flypia.com there is a brief Peoria airport history.
"On April 15th 1926 Lt.Charles A Lindbergh arrives with the
first airmail"he average

I looked through a catalog of aviation collectibles at
www.garciaavaiation.com

There are some similar aviation mittens pictured at that website.
I wrote to Garcia Aviation and invited them to look at the photo
at the PBS/OPB website and offer their perspecitve.

I sent for a newspaper on microfilm article search/First Air Mail Delivery
to Peoria Illinois April 15 1926 If found the article may provide some
aircraft aviation history and .Mt Hawley airport information or possibly
mention Lindbergh. The Peoria Public Library system at

www.peoriapubliclibrary.org

has an online program called Ask Away
connecting you with state and national library librarians that "chat"
with you,take your query and provide information and services or
direct you to other librarians that may provide help. Great program.

From the Peoria Journal Star Peoria Illinois
January 24 2007

Obit Frank J Becsey age 101 born to Louis and Mary Becsey
July 13 1905 in Elgin Iowa Died January 19th 2007 in Peoria

Additional family history/census records
Louis and Mary Becsey and family were living in Harper Harper County Kansas
in 1910

In 1920 and 1930 census records the Louis and Mary Becsey family were
living in Peoria Illinois Becsey is indexed as BESSEY in the 1920 census.

Louis and Mary Becsey immigrated from Hungary in circa 1902.

Craig

Gracia aviation site was a nice find. To me the closest match to the gloves shown above is the
USAAF TYPE A-9A GUNNERS MITTENS from WWII.

http://www.garciaaviation.com/cgi-local/storepro5/agora.cgi?cart_id=8424511.80774*ot5CM1&product=Gloves

Thanks to the excellent work of Christopher Farris reference librarian
with the Peoria Public library I received five articles from the Peoria
Journal newspaper dated April 15th 16th and 17th. The articles
and photos chroncile the events concerning the first airmail service
to Peoria and Charles Lndbergh's role in that postal service. There
was considerable publicity and more than 200 people were at
Varney field in Peoria to greet Lindbergh(there is a photo of Lindbergh
and his plane,Lindbergh shown opening the mail compartment.)
One article is a map of the airmail postal service routes in the US
One article is a photo of Miss Mary Martin of Bloomington Illinois
posting the first air mail letter in Peoria. Another article with a photo
of Lindbergh describes trouble he had piloting his plane to Peoria
due to a blizzard.

Besides the airmail postal service information and bit of early aviation history
these articles establish the publicity surrounding Lindbergh at the time
in Peoria which lend more credibility to Mr Becsey's letter and story.

I will send the attached articles to the PBS team perhaps they can make
them available to view online at the website.

Note to above posting: SHOULD read April 15th 16th 17th 1926

I have forwarded the e-mail attachments Peoria Journal
airmail and Lindbergh articles to the PBS/OPB team in
hopes they can post the articles online for viewers to
read. The five articles dated between April 15-17 1926
include photos of Linbergh and mention his plane #
"ship 109" landing at "Varney field", I will try to establish
the relationship/locations of Varney field,the Mt Hawley
Airport, and the "field" across the road from Mt Hawley
Golf Course mentioned in Mr Becsey's letter. The photos
of Mr CA Lindbergh in seperate articles and the plane #
and the amount of publicity surrounding the opening of
airmail service to Peoria("greeted by200 enthusiasts,city,postal
and Association of Commerce officials")
give an indication that Mr Bescey could have recognized Lindbergh
by sight or by the plane number by reading the Peoria newspapers.
A photo of Chalres Lindbergh accompinies an article featuring
Lindbergh's flight into Peoria being hampered by a rain storm he tried
to fly over,only to encounter "a blizzard" forcing him to lower the plane
and arrive a few minutes later than scheduled.
"In all about 2700 pieces of mail left Peoria via the airmail Thursday,
and an equally large amount came in postal officals stated"
Lindbergh's first flight into Peoria with the mail was southbound from
Chicago headed to St.Louis. His stop in Peoria was in the morning
and the mail cargo was at the US Post office at 8 am. Lindbergh left
Peoria and was headed to his next stop in Springfield Illinois.

For information about Varney Field and Alexander Varney and his role
in aviation hisory/Peoria/Charles Lindbergh/ Robertson Aircraft Com of Lambert
Field St Louis(the company that contracted the St Louis to Chicago airmaill route)
go to

www.lib.niu.edu/2002/ihy020449.html

Includes information about Varney Field and Mt hawley in Peoria
"The deHavilland DH4 plane piloted by Lindbergh in the St Louis
to Chicago route was named "The Spirit of St Louis" I don't know if
it is the same plane used in the transAtlantic flight or simply had the
same name but will look into that.
There is also a picture of Lindbergh and Phil R. Love,caption reads
The two pilots flew the first air mail on the Springfield Peoria Chicago
route on April 15 1926
There is also a photo of Lindbergh and the plane being loaded with mail
Another photo of a commerative card issued by the Peoria Post 2 American
Legion after Lindbergh flew a special consignment of mail over his
"old route" Feb 20/21 1928
"After Lindbergh flew to Paris,Varney's crew stated they would have gotten
to know him better had they known his fate"

This paragraph caught my eye, "Alexander Varney and his airfield were
quite accustomed to the media. Since they were the main story in the
news at the time, a representative from the media was almost always in sight.
Due to the media's constant presence,personnel were constantly bombarded
with interviews." It makes one wonder why Mr Becsey didn't use the found gloves
as access to either the media or Lindbergh. But there is also the chance that
more newspaper on microfilm research on Peoria airmail/Lindbergh articles
in/and after the events Mr Becsey describes and searches in/near and after the
date of Lindbergh's transatlantic flight and national fame might turn up a Becsey
and lost and found gloves story.

For more information see the above website/Varney field

Perhaps Kelly Mesch would like to ivestigate more of the story
of the gloves in Peoria resources such as the Peoria Historical
Society,Peoria Public Library etc. As Kelly is from Bloomington
Illinois she could possibly do follow up and participate in
the investigation as well.

With the help of and thanks to Chistopher Farris of the Peoria Public Library

LESHNICK DIRECTORY COMPANY 1926 Peoria

Becsey,Frank student rooms 804 E Nebraska av.
Louis(Mary) blacksmith House 804 E Nebraska av.

I have wondered about the possible difficulty of using mittens in the de Haviland DH-4 which Lindbergh was problably flying at that time. Mittens are quite combersome for manipulating small switches and valve handles.
I have tried unsuccessfully to find what the cockpit of that plane contained.
I am sure the controls were quite simple, and the mittens may not have been a problem.

At the Smithsonian Postal Museum website is a listing of items provided by the Post Office to the "Early Aviators". GLoves are listed as being supplied by the Post Office. There is also a photo included! If gloves were issued by the Post Office I would imagine they could have some sort of Postal ID or Logo on them. This was a few years prior to the Great Depression so the pilots might have had a few extra bucks in their pockets to purchase their own if they didn't like the ones issued by the Post Office

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/airmail/flightschool/pants/flightschool_pants_suitup.html

I too believe that it would have been difficult and impractical for an Air Mail pilot to use mittens instead of gloves to fly a de Haviland of that era. In the book "Lindbergh" by Scott Berg, Lindbergh tells of his crash of September 16,1926 where he jumps from the cowling of the plane and pulls the ripchord of his parachute. How difficult would it have been to pull a ripchord with such cumbersome mittens?
I have never seen a photograph of him wearing mittens but have seen several of him wearing or carrying heavy gloves.

After further observation of the mittens themselves I would expect to see them much more soiled then they are. I would imagine they would have grease or oil of some sort on them just from the day to day use around an airplane of that era.