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.

* | Tags: Fun facts USPS Fact #879 | April 15, 2024

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.

* | Tags: History USPS Fact #878 | April 15, 2024

First Post Office – 1639

1639

first post office

The first Post Office in America was established in a tavern in Boston in 1639.

* | Tags: History USPS Fact #877 | April 15, 2024

Singing mailman

Singing

mailman

John Prine, singer and songwriter, was a letter carrier in Maywood, IL, 1964-1969.

* | Tags: Fun facts People USPS Fact #746 | April 15, 2024

Smithsonian Postal Museum Opened

Smithsonian- National Postal Museum
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.

* | Tags: History USPS Fact #740 | April 15, 2024

The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum offers exhibits tracing the history of the postal system in the United States. It houses nearly six million 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.

Parents sometimes mailed their children

Very Special

delivery

In the early days of Parcel Post, 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.

* | Tags: Fun facts USPS Fact #386 | April 17, 2024

Grandma, can you babysit?

Just a few weeks after Parcel Post began, Jesse and Mathilda Beagle “mailed” their 8-month-old son James to his grandmother, who lived a few miles away near Batavia, Ohio. Baby Beagle was just under the initial 11-pound limit for parcels. Rural Carrier Vernon Lytle picked up the baby from his parents’ house and carried him in his mail wagon to his grandmother’s house. The postage was fifteen cents, and the “parcel” was insured for $50. Although it was against postal regulations, several children traveled via U.S. Mail in the early years of Parcel Post. Initially the only animals that were allowed in the mail were bees and bugs. In 1918, day-old chicks were allowed in the mail. In 1919, some additional “harmless live animals” were permitted, but children did not fall into this category.