United States

The United States did not put its passport in the form of the international type. It is a red booklet in English alone, with the number shown through a cut-out in the cover and the Great Seal below it, first issued in 1926.

Page 2 is the Secretary of State's request, signed by him, sealed and dated, with the bearer's name, his wife and his minor children written in. The description of the bearer keeps to seven lines: height in feet and inches, hair, eyes, distinguishing marks, place and date of birth, occupation. There is no nationality and no domicile: the booklet says only "a citizen of the United States".

From March 1921 no American needed a passport to leave his country or come home. He carried one because the consul of the country he was going to asked for it.

The order of the front pages changed in the thirties: in the booklets read of 1926 and 1927 the photograph is page 4 and the description page 5, and in the one of 1934 the description is page 3 and the notice of validity page 5. Page 1 has not been found, so Bearer prints it empty.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

The passport, from 3 July 1926

The description of the bearer

• Height
• Hair
• Eyes
• Distinguishing marks or features:
• Place of birth
• Date of birth
• Occupation

The passport, from 16 May 1932

The description of the bearer

• Height
• Hair
• Eyes
• Distinguishing marks or features:
• Place of birth
• Date of birth
• Occupation

The same paper elsewhere

• Passports by country

Still to be confirmed

• the page count of 32. What would settle it: a booklet counted through; the figure comes from a trade history, not from a booklet.
• the date the type ends: the Act of 16 May 1932 made a passport renewable, and the booklet read of 1934 no longer prints the sentence forbidding extension. What would settle it: booklets of 1932 and 1933.
• the size of the booklet: the League's 15.5 by 10.5 cm is used. What would settle it: an American booklet measured.
• the page count of 32. What would settle it: a booklet counted through.
• the date the type begins. What would settle it: booklets of 1932 and 1933: the rules of 22 June 1932 allow one renewal of two years and no more than four years from the original date of issue.
• the size of the booklet: the League's 15.5 by 10.5 cm is used. What would settle it: an American booklet measured.

Sources

• Department of State, photographs held by the Missouri Historical Society through the Digital Public Library of America, on Wikimedia Commons, United States passport no. 1892, issued at Washington on 17 May 1927, read cover and pages 2 to 5 (the booklet carried on the New York to Paris flight), cover (the number in a window, the Great Seal, PASSPORT / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA), page 2 (the Secretary of State's request, wife and minor children, the seal), page 3 (the validity notice), page 4 (photograph of bearer), page 5 (description of bearer) (read directly)
• Department of State, photographs on Wikimedia Commons, United States passport issued at Washington on 14 December 1934, read pages 2 to 5, page 2 (the request), page 3 (description of bearer, and 'This passport is not valid unless signed by the person to whom it has been issued'), page 4 (photograph), page 5 (the validity notice, without the sentence forbidding extension) (read directly)
• HM Passport Office, Historic passport information, version 11, pp. 8-9, Old Blue (hardback style) passports (read directly)
• President of the United States, Executive Order 5860, Rules Governing the Granting and Issuing of Passports in the United States, rules 10 (wife and unmarried minor children), 16 and 18 (fees), 39 (description of the applicant), 42 to 46 (photographs), 90 and 91 (two years, renewable, four years at most from the original date of issue) (read directly)

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