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Image Via allspice1 [Flickr]
If you didn’t already hear, Saturday was Thank A Mailman Day. While we missed the holiday itself, the fact is that mail carriers rarely get the respect and appreciation they deserve, which is why we’ve decided to go ahead and “deliver” you these fascinating facts about the USPS with the hope that you’ll find time in the upcoming week to say “thank you” to your mail carrier.
America got its first postal service in 1692 when King William gave Thomas Neale the power to erect “offices for the receiving and dispatching letters and pacquets,” essentially making him the US’s first Postmaster General.
The post office is so well-established in the states that the Constitution specifically grants congress the right “to establish post offices and post roads. In fact, Benjamin Franklin helped create the United States Post Office and served as the first Postmaster General.
After 1792 and up until the post office was divided from the government in 1971, the Postmaster General was a position on the Presidential cabinet and the person in the role served as the last person in the presidential line of succession –meaning that if the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Attorney General and every other cabinet member died in some sort of freakish accident, the leader of the post office would suddenly be in charge of the nation. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m certainly glad it never came to that.
The first adhesive stamps were issued in 1842 and postage rates became standardized in 1845. Congress officially authorized postage stamps in 1847 and the first two general issue stamps featured Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. The two men were the only images seen on stamps until 1856, when a Thomas Jefferson stamp was issued. Throughout this time, other payment methods were still accepted but in 1856, postage stamps became mandatory for mail sent through the Post Office.
more …
Before the varicella vaccine became widely available in 1995, some parents would encourage a case of chicken pox in their children, as enduring the disease would cause immunity and it is less dangerous in children than for adults. Decades ago when I was young, no encouragement was needed as chicken pox, measles, and mumps swept through schools every year -the same way smallpox and diphtheria spread before vaccines were developed. Since most children are innoculated these days, it’s not so easy to find a case of chicken pox to catch, so some vaccine-wary parents are going online to have it delivered …by mail!
One post from a Facebook group called “Find a Pox Party in Your Area” (a closed group, but with pictures of its hundreds of members) reads, ”I got a Pox Package in mail just moments ago. I have two lollipops and a wet rag and spit.” Another woman warns, “This is a federal offense to intentionally mail a contagion.” Another woman answers, “Tuck it inside a zip lock baggy and then put the baggy in the envelope : ) Don’t put anything identifying it as pox.” Very clever.
I’m sure employees of the postal service appreciate such subterfuge. The fact remains that the practice is illegal. And didn’t we learn back in the ’80s that sharing bodily fluids with strangers is dangerous? Link
(Image credit: Jelene Morris)
I love the idea of this project by web designer Matthew McVickar. He sent this camera in the mail with a message asking the postal workers to take pictures on the camera’s trip to its destination. The result is fun and educational, and it would be a great school project for any teachers out there.
Link Via Laughing Squid
What’s the strangest parcel you ever received in the mail? I’ll bet it doesn’t compare to a 48 1/2 pound four year old girl named May Pierstorff.
May’s parents decided to send their daughter for a visit with her grandparents, but were reluctant to pay the train fare. Noticing that there were no provisions in the parcel post regulations specifically concerning sending a person through the mails, they decided to “mail” their daughter. The postage, 53-cents in parcel post stamps, was attached to May’s coat. This little girl traveled the entire distance to Lewiston in the train’s mail compartment and was delivered to her grandmother’s home by the mail clerk on duty, Leonard Mochel.
Link via coisas do arco da velha
Wayne Daniels delivered mail for the British Royal Mail service -until March, when it was discovered that he had dumped 420 letters instead of delivering them. The 25-year-old man pleaded guilty to theft and delaying the mail on Monday. Daniels’ defense lawyer explained why he did it.
Fran Tyler, defending, said: “He suffers from dyslexia and he was struggling to read the addresses.
“He said it was an impulsive action born out of frustration and said it was a disgrace to himself and to the Royal Mail. He had not discussed the problem with colleagues because of a mixture of pride and embarrassment.”
Daniels was ordered to pay a fine and perform community service. Link -via Arbroath
Photo: National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institute
Before FedEx, there was the Pony Express, an expedited mail delivery system with more than 180 stations across the North American continent from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.
At each station, a rider would leap onto a fresh horse and gallop at full speed to the next.
Sometime in 1860, a Pony Express rider, whose name is long lost to history, vanished while crossing the wild lands of Nevada. Two years later, his mail pouch was found. Today, only a few artifacts remain from that pouch, including the envelope above. This envelope is only one of two known pieces of "interrupted mail" mail to exist from the Pony Express.
The rare 1860 envelope attests that hard riding was not the most daunting aspect of the job. Routes passed through deserted, often forbidding, territory. A note scrawled on the front of the artifact alludes to its tragic backstory: “Recovered from a [sic] mail stolen by the Indians in 1860.” The nameless victim is thought to have been the only Pony Express rider killed, though a few station agents died when Indians attacked their outposts.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.
The package was en route from Appomattox, Virginia to Puerto Rico. At the post office in Lynchburg, Virginia, postal workers noticed the box was moving. They had to get a search warrant, and when they finally opened the package, inspectors found a ferret inside! Postal workers promptly named it Stamps.
Photos from the Postal Inspector’s office show someone stuffed Stamps into a makeshift cage, doped him up on Benedryl, and tried to mail the ferret to the U.S. Territory.
The Postal Inspector handling the case, David McKinney, believes whoever tried to mail Stamps knew they were up to no good. The return address on the package is an abandoned house, and the sender doesn’t exist.
A local family with 15 other ferrets has adopted Stamps, who is healthy and estimated to be about two years old. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: US Postal Inspector)
In the era before Express Mail or Special Delivery, the Swedes and Finns used feathers affixed to mail by a royal seal to indicate a “need for speed.” These Fjäderbrev were in use from the mid-eighteenth century until the mid-nineteenth century, when stamps were introduced. The item pictured above is…
An Official Proclamation letter sent to Helsinki on January 3, 1774, during the time of King Gustaf III, concerning the delivery of grain to the Royal or Military Storage House… The wavy line (known as a meander) with two horizontal lines through it and three stylized “crowns” in the spaces (all together known as a Crown Coil or Kronoslinga) was the indicia that this was to be sent through the Royal Swedish Crown Post… The two feathers (out of three possible) indicate it is a very urgent message.
Some sources suggest that black and white feathers were also used to indicate that travel should be done by day and by night. This philatelic innovation was commemorated on a Swedish stamp in 1984.
Link.
Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore has come up with a clever new marketing campaign in a search for new recruits for the Singapore Navy. They sent over 6,000 letters containing a fold out uniform to help the students better imagine themselves as Navy officers.
The mock uniforms are to help the students better imagine themselves dressed for success. 6,000 direct mailers were mailed to graduating ‘A’ level students in December 2008. 4.7% of them responded, considered a higher than average response rate compared to previous direct mailers sent out.
“We sent out direct mailer packs, which opened out to be the ultimate uniform – a crisp, white Naval Officer’s jacket, complete with medals and decorations. A business reply card was placed in the breast pocket.”
Link – via campaignbrief
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by coconutnut.
For many people, even the word “Detroit” brings to mind images of crime, cars and poverty. But no city can really be that black and white. The things you don’t know about Detroit might just entertain you. Elovethiscity has a fun collection of 10 Detroit Facts You Should Know. For example, did you know the city hosts the only floating post office in America (shown above):
The J. W. Westcott II docks just South of The Ambassador Bridge along the western shore of the Detroit River. She is America’s only floating ZIP Code [48222]. Delivering over 100 years of “mail-by-the-pail”, the J.W. Westcott Company was originally formed in 1874 by Captain J.W. Westcott to inform passing vessels of changes in orders.
Today the 45-foot vessel’s duties include U.S. mail delivery; freight delivery, storage, forwarding; message service; passenger service to and from vessels and pilot boat services for the Port of Detroit. The Westcott also sells nautical charts, postcards, books, and has been known to deliver the occasional mid-river pizza.
While it’s debatable on whether marijuana will lead to harder drugs, it’s now fact that it can lead to laziness.
Here’s the story of a postman who got so lazy after smoking so much pot that he decided to burn mail instead of delivering it:
Neil Goddard, 32, was given a 12-month sentence after he set up a huge cannabis factory in his bedroom and managed to cultivate 8,000 pounds of the drug.
But he smoked so much of it over a year-old period that he was too high to bother delivering thousands of items of post.
So let’s revise that (unofficial) postal service motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, but pot surely can!"
