The Ole Mail Route from 1618 to Today

Entrance to the National Postal Museum.

I went to United States Postal Museum today.  It is a branch of the Smithsonian museums.  It's right beside Union Station making it convenient for me.  Today was a rainy day.  I'm talking cats and dogs, so it was a strategic choice in that I wouldn't get drenched on my way there.

It was absolutely entertaining.  Dare I say it may be my most favorite museum in DC.  See, I know very little about USPS, but now I know a lot.

Many of you know how much I love to mail postcards and notes.  I have a penchant for paper goods.  Every Christmas I ask Santa for an original and unique paper good be it a planner, notecards, postcards, pad of paper, etc.  I have a whole arsenal of paper goods.  Mail is special to me.  I love to get it as much as I love to send it, so it seemed only appropriate that I visit this museum.

I have lots of pictures to share with you that I'll detail as I post.

First I think I'll begin with the transportation.  The transportation was the first exhibit you encounter upon entry.

Of course, the mail first began on foot, but then travel by wagon began.  Here you have a wagon.  There would be about four horses pulling the mail.

In Alaska, the best way to deliver the mail was by dogsled.  There would be malamutes or huskies pulling the mailman and the mail over the tough terrain and through the inclement weather.  Cross country skis were often used, too.

Later came trains, the exhibit was funded by Norfolk Southern Railroad.  Inside there are boxes and cubbies for mail as well as an organizational system.  Train made it much easier to collect mail across the United States to take it to be distributed.  A useful contraption was the "mail on the fly" sack.

Mailmen collecting in a town or neighborhood would put the mail in this sack for the coming trains, and the train mailmen would operate this contraption from the train with pulleys or levers, and the mail would drop into a hole in the ceiling of the train as the train passed under it.  Then, they would put it in the cubbies as collected.  This is called "Mail on the Fly."

And then you have your air mail.

Model T's were the first cars used to deliver the mail.  Motorcycles were used before the Model T.

Then, came the LLV (Long Life Vehicle) that we know and look for when expecting something in the mail.  They came about in 1986.  Before they were approved for mail transit they were put through grueling and rigorous road tests.  These puppies had to drive over cobblestones, through tens of thousands of potholes, over dirt roads, and were left running for long stretches of time.  I'm talking about twenty hours.  Eventually they were proven fit and Grumman was given the contract to manufacture them for USPS.

Now, I'll move to the postal history.

What do you do in 1673 when you need to mail a letter?  Read below

Here are maps of US mail coverage through the years.  Please know that the 13 colonies had mail service almost as soon as the colonies had the administrative capacity to deliver mail as noted in the previous caption.

Mail service spreads beyond the 13 colonies (aqua region is the new mail delivery territory).

Mail coverage grows with the Louisiana Purchase.

Mail coverage grows with the acquisition of Texas after war.

Now on to mail during wartimes.

V-mail or Victory mail is fascinating.  I'll let the museum's website tell you about it.

V, or Victory mail, was a valuable tool for the military during World War II. The process, which originated in England, was the microfilming of specially designed letter sheets. Instead of using valuable cargo space to ship whole letters overseas, microfilmed copies were sent in their stead and then "blown up" at an overseas destination before being delivered to military personnel.

V-mail ensured that thousands of tons of shipping space could be reserved for war materials. The 37 mail bags required to carry 150,000 one-page letters could be replaced by a single mail sack. The weight of that same amount of mail was reduced dramatically from 2,575 pounds to a mere 45. The blue-striped cardboard containers held V-mail letter forms.

The system of microfilming letters was based on the use of special V-mail letter-sheets, which were a combination of letter and envelope. The letter-sheets were constructed and gummed so as to fold into a uniform and distinctively marked envelope. The user wrote the message in the limited space provided, added the name and address of the recipient, folded the form, affixed postage, if necessary, and mailed the letter. V-mail correspondence was then reduced to thumb-nail size on microfilm. The rolls of film were sent to prescribed destinations for developing at a receiving station near the addressee. Finally, individual facsimiles of the letter-sheets were reproduced about one-quarter the original size and the miniature mail was then delivered to the addressee.

The first large Army operated V-mail station overseas was opened on April 15, 1943 at Casablanca, North Africa. Hastily set up in a field following the Allied invasion of North Africa, this makeshift station continued to operate until September 15, 1943. Between June 15, 1942 and April 1, 1945, 556,513,795 pieces of V-mail were sent from the U.S. to military post offices and over 510 million pieces were received from military personnel abroad. In spite of the patriotic draw of V-mail, most people still sent regular first class mail. In 1944, for instance, Navy personnel received 38 million pieces of V-mail, but over 272 million pieces of regular first class mail.

Poster promoting V-mail.

I end with one of the most heartwarming stories I've heard in a while.  It's all about Owney, USPS's mascot.  Owney stole my heart and some of my money when I went into the gift shop.  Bad Owney!

Oh, Owney, Owney.  I'll let the museum tell you about him, but I do want to add a precious detail that is left out.  If a mailbag fell off the train, Owney would jump off the moving train and lay on the mailbag until it was retrieved by a mailman.  He was the "safekeeper" of the mail.

Owney, posed here with a letter carrier, was a stray mutt who wandered into the Albany, New York, post office in 1888. The clerks let him stay, and he fell asleep on some mailbags. Owney was attracted to the texture or scent of the mailbags and followed them when they were placed on a Railway Mail Service train. Owney began to ride with the bags on trains across the state—and then the country. In 1895 Owney made an around-the-world trip, traveling with mailbags on trains and steamships to Asia and across Europe, before returning to Albany.