1963
ZIP Code introduced
July 1, 1963: The five-digit ZIP Code was introduced.
Fact source: Historian
1902 – Rural free delivery
1902
rural free delivery
July 1, 1902: Rural free delivery became a permanent service in America.
1992 – First Lunar New Year stamp
1992
Lunar New Year stamp series
In 1992, the first stamp in the Lunar New Year stamp series was issued and celebrated the year of the rooster.
1973 – First Love stamp
1973
First Love stamp
The first stamp in the Love stamp series was issued in 1973 and was designed by pop artist Robert Indiana.
1962 – First Christmas-themed stamp
1962
1st Christmas-themed stamp
Nov. 1, 1962: The first Christmas-themed U.S. postage stamp was issued.
1993 – “sonic eagle” corporate logo introduced
1993
eagle logo takes flight
Oct. 12, 1993: The USPS corporate logo — the “sonic eagle” — was unveiled.
1933 – Antarctica Post Office
1933
FIRST ARCTIC POST OFFICE
Oct. 6, 1933: The first U.S. Post Office was established in Antarctica.
1967 – First National Postal Forum (NPF)
1967
1st National Postal Forum
Sept. 14, 1967: The Post Office Department held the first National Postal Forum (NPF) in Washington, DC.
1995 – USPS corporate logo trademarked
1995
corporate logo trademark
Sept. 12, 1995: The USPS corporate logo became a registered trademark.
1969 – Apollo 11 postmark
1969
moon landing postmark
July 22, 1969: The crew of Apollo 11 canceled the first piece of mail carried to the moon with a postmark reading, “Moon Landing, U.S.A.” Although the postmark was dated July 20, the first chance the crew had to cancel the envelope was two days later on the journey home.
2000 – First circular postage stamp
2000
first circular stamp
July 7, 2000: The first circular U.S. postage stamp, the $11.75 "Space Achievement and Exploration" Express Mail stamp, was issued. It featured a hologram of Earth — another first.
1971 – U.S. Postal Service begins operations
1971
U.S. Postal Service begins
July 1, 1971: The United States Postal Service, the successor of the Post Office Department, officially began operations.
1942 – Victory Mail service
Victory Mail
1942
June 15, 1942: Victory Mail service — V-Mail for short — began for deployed members of the U.S. armed forces during World War II. More than 1 billion Victory-Mail letters were delivered between June 1942 and November 1945.
1959 – Missile mail
READY
to Launch — 1959
June 8, 1959: Mail was dispatched by guided missile from a U.S. Navy submarine to a naval air station in Florida.
1955 – Certified Mail service begins
1955
Certified Mail service
The Post Office Department began Certified Mail service in June 1955.
1918 – Start of scheduled Airmail service
1918
first U.S. airmail route
May 15, 1918: The Post Office Department began scheduled airmail service between New York and Washington, DC — the first airmail route in the United States.
1973 – Shorts for male letter carriers
SHORT SHORTS
1973
Male letter carriers were first allowed to wear shorts during the summer on April 1, 1973.
1845 – First commercial telegraph service
1845
telegraph service begins
The first commercial telegraph service began under the Post Office Department in April 1845.
1997 – First triangular stamp
1997
First Triangular Stamp
The Postal Service issued the first triangular stamp on March 13, 1997. The 32-cent stamp featured a clipper ship and a stagecoach and debuted at the Pacific 97 International Stamp Exhibition.
1893 – Pneumatic tube service
1893
pneumatic tube mail
Pneumatic tube mail service was first tested in Philadelphia on March 1, 1893, after having been authorized by Congress the year prior.
1792 – Death penalty for mail theft
1792
Death for Mail Theft
On Feb. 20, 1792, an act of Congress specified that anyone convicted of stealing mail "shall, on conviction thereof, suffer death." In 1872, the maximum penalty for mail theft was reduced to a lifetime of hard labor. Today, mail theft carries potential penalties of up to five years in prison and significant fines.
1992 – Maternity wear for letter carriers
1992
carrier maternity wear
The Postal Service introduced maternity wear for pregnant letter carriers on Feb. 3, 1992.
1978 – Black Heritage stamp series begins
1978
BLACK HERITAGE stamps
The first stamp in the Black Heritage stamp series was issued on Feb. 1, 1978, and featured Harriet Tubman.
1963 – Last dogsled route ends
1963
end of dogsled mail
On Jan. 8, 1963, the last dogsled mail route in Alaska ended. It connected Gambell and Savoonga and had been replaced by airplane service the month before.
1968 – Priority Mail service begins
1968
PRIORITY MAIL begins
Priority Mail service began Jan. 7, 1968.
Owney, the postal dog
OWNEY
the postal dog
On an autumn day in 1888, a shaggy pup took his first steps toward becoming a postal legend when he crept into the Albany, NY, Post Office. Postal employees allowed him to stay and named him Owney.
At first, Owney stayed close to the Post Office, but he soon began riding mail wagons to the train depot and the railway mail car down to New York City and back to Albany. As Owney traveled farther, his friends at the Albany Post Office feared he might wander too far away to find his way home again, so they purchased a leather collar with a tag reading “Owney, Post Office, Albany, N.Y.” Railway mail clerks recorded Owney’s travels by attaching metal baggage tags to his collar to identify the rail lines he traveled on. He was soon so weighed down by his collection of tags that Postmaster General John Wanamaker presented Owney with a jacket to distribute their weight more evenly.
Owney took to traveling farther and staying away longer, eventually visiting Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, Singapore, Suez, Algiers and the Azores.
One day, while being shown off to an Ohio newspaper reporter, Owney bit the clerk who was handling him. The postmaster had Owney put down on June 11, 1897. Railway mail clerks chipped in money to have a taxidermist preserve Owney’s body, which then was sent to postal headquarters in Washington, DC, for exhibit. In 1911, the Post Office Department entrusted Owney to the Smithsonian Institution. Since 1993, Owney has been on display at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC. In 2011, Owney was honored on a commemorative U.S. postage stamp.
Postmaster Abraham Lincoln
Postmaster
LINCOLN
On May 7, 1833, 24-year-old Abraham Lincoln was appointed postmaster of New Salem, IL. Lincoln served until the office was closed May 30, 1836.
Two postmasters became U.S. presidents later in their careers — Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman. Truman held the title and signed papers but immediately turned the position and its pay over to an assistant. Lincoln was the only president who served as a postmaster.
On May 7, 1833, 24-year-old Lincoln was appointed Postmaster of New Salem, IL. Lincoln served until the office was closed May 30, 1836. Postal records show that Lincoln earned $55.70 as postmaster in fiscal year 1835 and $19.48 for one quarter’s work in fiscal year 1837. Besides his pay, Lincoln, as postmaster, could send and receive personal letters free and get one daily newspaper delivered free. Mail arrived once a week. If an addressee did not collect the mail, as was the custom, Lincoln delivered it personally — usually carrying the mail in his hat. Even then, Lincoln was “Honest Abe.”
Reportedly, when the New Salem Post Office was discontinued, Lincoln had a balance of $16 or $18, which he took with him to Springfield, IL. Months later, while his close friend Dr. A. G. Henry was visiting, a Post Office agent called on Lincoln to collect the funds. Henry knew that Lincoln had been in financial straits and feared that he might not have the money. Henry recalled that just as he was about to offer Lincoln a loan, the future president “. . . went over to his trunk at his boarding house, and returned with an old blue sock with a quantity of silver and copper coin tied up in it. Untying the sock, he poured the contents on the table and proceeded to count the coin, which consisted of such silver and copper pieces as the country-people were then in the habit of using in paying postage. On counting it up there was found the exact amount, to a cent, of the draft, and in the identical coin which had been received. He never used, under any circumstances, trust funds.”
African American postmasters
1860
African American postmasters
African Americans worked as postmasters, clerks and carriers beginning in the 1860s — 100 years before the Civil Rights Movement brought about wider opportunity in the American workplace.
First known female postmaster
1ST FEMALE
postmaster
The first known female postmaster in the United Colonies was Mary Katharine Goddard in Baltimore in 1775.
First known female mail carrier
1ST KNOWN
female mail carrier
The first known female mail carrier was Sarah Black, who worked as a mail messenger in Charlestown, MD, in 1845.
First known African American postmaster
1ST KNOWN
African American postmaster
The first known African American postmaster was James W. Mason in Sunny Side, AR, in 1867.
First known African American mail carrier
1ST KNOWN
African American carrier
The first known African American mail carrier was James B. Christian in Richmond, VA, in 1869.
First American woman on a stamp
1ST AMERICAN
woman on a stamp
The first American woman on a U.S. postage stamp was Martha Washington in 1902.
First African American postal inspector
1ST AFRICAN
American postal inspector
The first known African American postal inspector was Isaac Myers in Baltimore in 1870.
Isaac Myers served as a postal inspector from 1870 until 1879. During his employment he helped solve a number of notorious cases.
First Hispanic American on a stamp
1ST HISPANIC
American on a stamp
The first Hispanic American on a stamp was U.S. Navy Adm. David Farragut in 1903.
First Native American on a stamp
1ST NATIVE
American on a stamp
The first Native American on a stamp was Pocahontas in 1907.
First African American on a stamp
1ST AFRICAN
American on a stamp
The first African American on a stamp was educator, author and orator Booker T. Washington in 1940.
First female postmaster general
1ST FEMALE
postmaster general
The first female postmaster general was Megan J. Brennan, Washington, DC, 2015. Brennan's tenure was Feb. 1, 2015 – June 15, 2020.
1993 — Smithsonian Postal Museum opened
1993
National Postal Museum opens
In 1993, the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum opened. This museum is dedicated to the preservation, study and presentation of postal history and philately.
The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum offers exhibits tracing the history of the postal system in the United States. It houses millions of postal-related items — mostly stamps, but also postal stationery, greeting cards, covers and letters, mailboxes, postal vehicles, handstamps, metering machines, patent models, uniforms, badges and other objects related to postal history and philately. The museum’s library, with more than 40,000 volumes and manuscripts, is open to the public by appointment. In 2013, the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery — the largest in the world — opened at the museum.
For more information, go to postalmuseum.si.edu.
Singing mailman
Singing
mailman
John Prine, singer and songwriter, was a letter carrier in Maywood, IL, 1964-1969.
1639 – First Post Office
1639
first Post Office
The first Post Office in the American colonies was established in a Boston tavern in 1639.
Newspapers in the mail
Newspapers
and the U.S. Mail
Extra! Extra! American newspapers largely owe their existence to Post Offices. As part of the Post Office Act of 1792, newspapers were permitted to be mailed at extremely low rates. By the start of the 19th century, newspapers made up the bulk of the U.S. Mail.
Farm-to-table isn’t new
Farm Goods
delivered by mail
The farm-to-table concept isn’t new. From 1914 to 1920, the farm-to-table program was a novel initiative that allowed farmers to arrange prices with people in urban areas and then mail them fresh meats, eggs, dairy products, produce, honey, jelly and more. This was a way to give farmers more customers and city dwellers greater and cheaper access to fresh goods.
Delivering coconuts
That's
JUST NUTS!
Coconuts can be mailed without a box. Simply address the coconut and add your return addresses on the husk, have it weighed for appropriate postage, and it is shipped as-is. Photo: Coconuts ready for mailing at the Molokai, HI, Post Office.
Mailing potatoes
SPUDTACULAR!
potatoes in the mail
It's SPUDTACULAR! As with coconuts, potatoes can be mailed without a box. Simply write the address it's going to and your return addresses on the spud, have it weighed for appropriate postage, and it can be shipped as-is. Let someone know they are special. Send a tater!
Hope Diamond in the mail
Hope
in the mail
Hope in the mail. In 1958, luxury jeweler Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution. With his years of experience in shipping jewelry all over the world, Winston sent the diamond via Registered Mail service with the Post Office Department.
The diamond was placed in a box, wrapped in brown paper, and sent by registered mail from New York in a Railway Post Office train car. In Washington, DC, it was picked up by a mail carrier and driven to the National Museum of Natural History. The price paid for shipping the gem, valued at $1 million at the time, was $145.29, most of that for package insurance.
Fort Knox gold in the mail
Fort Knox
gold in the mail
Under the watchful security of the Postal Inspection Service, Railway Mail Service clerks transferred some of the $9 billion in gold bullion shipped as Registered Mail from the New York City Assay Office to the depository at Fort Knox, KY, in 1941.
The Inspection Service provided security and management in the cooperative effort between the Post Office Department, local law enforcement, U.S. Army and U.S. Treasury Department.
Sending kids in the mail
Kids
in the mail??
Do not try to ship your kids! In the early days of Parcel Post service, a few parents managed to mail their children to relatives. In 1913, an 8-month-old baby in Ohio was mailed by his parents to his grandmother, who lived a few miles away. The baby was safely delivered! Regulations were quickly established to prevent any additional mailing of children through the U.S. Mail.
Sending bricks in the mail
just another
BRICK IN THE MAIL
Individual bricks can be shipped in the U.S. Mail. Get a permanent marker, write the address and your return address, get it weighed and add the postage. Send that special someone a brick of affection.
Just don’t think you can send enough bricks to build a house or, perhaps a bank. Been there. Done that. You can read about the bank of Vernal, UT, here.
Post Office made of straw — Corrales, NM
Corrales NM
PO made of straw
In Corrales, NM, in 1999, a new Post Office was built with more than 900 bales of straw as insulation. The Post Office is still standing strong and saving energy — a proud testament to the Postal Service’s longstanding history of sustainable practices.
Corrales NM Post Office
No flag at B. Free Franklin Post Office
No Flag
Flies Here
No high-flying flag here. The B. Free Franklin Post Office in Philadelphia, which is part of Independence National Historical Park, does not fly the U.S. flag. This office aims to recreate the atmosphere of a colonial-era Post Office, and the Stars and Stripes did not yet exist in 1775.
Franklin used to own the building and there is a small museum on the second floor.
Buildings on National Register of Historic Places
1,400
historic buildings
More than 1,400 USPS-owned buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Our History is the History of America
Many Postal Service buildings are historical properties. At many Post Office locations, you’ll find impressive works
of art that reflect the stories of our people and our nation.
- More than 1,400 USPS-owned buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. More information can be found at nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/database-research.htm.gov/nr/research/
- More than 1,400 murals and sculptures from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs are in our Post Offices around the nation.
- Five murals were featured on First-Class postage stamps in 2019
- “The United States Postal Service: An American History” is an entire publication dedicated to our history and can be found at usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/welcome.htm.
No official motto
About
that motto
The U.S. Postal Service has no official motto. Nope, it’s not this phrase: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But we certainly appreciate the sentiment.
About that motto…
Those words are engraved on the front of the James A. Farley Post Office in New York City, set in stone by the architectural firm that built it. The phrase is taken from an ancient book by the Greek historian Herodotus and refers to messengers in the Persian Empire.
The phrase comes from book 8, paragraph 98, of The Persian Wars by Herodotus, a Greek historian. During the wars between the Greeks and Persians (500-449 B.C.), the Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers who served with great fidelity.
The popular belief that Herodotus’s description of the Persian postal service is about the U.S. Postal Service is a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who have delivered the mail reliably and dependably, through all conditions, for centuries.
Benjamin Franklin first postmaster general
FIRST
postmaster general
The Postal Service traces its origin to 1775, when Benjamin Franklin was appointed as the first postmaster general of the United Colonies. His annual salary was $1,000. From 1872 to 1971, the postmaster general was a presidential Cabinet member.
Mule train delivery
MULE TRAIN
delivery
The most unusual mode of delivery used by the Postal Service is the mule train. Since the 1930s, mules have been carrying mail and goods to the Havasupai people inside the Grand Canyon.
Got mules? The most unusual mode of delivery
used by the Postal Service is the mule train. Since the
1930s, mules have been carrying mail and goods to the
Havasupai people inside the Grand Canyon.
- Daily delivery includes 10-22 mules, along with one
wrangler on horseback, five days a week, traveling
nine miles down into the canyon to the Supai
Post Office. - It takes three hours to get down and five hours to
get up. - On the way up, the wrangler untethers the mules and
sends them back on their own. - Each mule can carry up to 200 pounds, and the
weight is distributed equally on each side of the
animal for balance. - The Supai Post Office has a special Mule
Train postmark.
Pony Express
WHOA!
Pony Express
The official name for the Pony Express was the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Co. Before they were hired, riders had to swear on a Bible not to curse, fight or abuse their animals. The service was in operation only from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861. It was never part of the U.S. Postal Service but operated as a contract U.S. Mail route during its final months.
That’s no pony, that’s a big horse
The official name for the “Pony Express” was the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Co. Before they were hired, riders had to swear on a Bible not to curse, fight or abuse their animals. The service was in operation only from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861. It operated as a U.S. Mail route during its final 4 months.
On April 3, 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, MO, and Sacramento, CA. Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet’s arrival in St. Joseph by two days and setting a new standard for speedy mail delivery. The Pony Express was by far the most effective way to communicate cross-country —until the telegraph came along. After 18 months in operation, the system was shuttered on October 26, 1861, and the last remaining mail was delivered.
The Pony Express National Historic Trail was designated to preserve the story and routes of this nationally significant trail and to support the associated sites that preserve its history. Learn more at https://www.nps.gov/poex
