Under a new Civil Aeronautics Board Order, Pan American was authorized to serve the entire Bahamas group – not merely Nassau and Rock Sound as heretofore – and to fly from Washington, D.C. (Dulles Airport) as well as New York. This meant that Freeport, the booming second city in the Bahamas, could be served by Pan Am for the first time, and that Washington would have direct flights to the islands.

No cachet was provided for the inaugural mail from Nassau.

This cover was one of only 95 pieces of mail carried on the inaugural Foreign Air Mail Route 5 flight from Nassau, Bahamas to Washington, DC (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Air Mail Flights (FAM) Section of The American Air Mail Catalogue as F5-323.

Mike Codd, a noted air mail historian, prepared the cover.