Located inside the Postal Training Center in Nazarbad, the Postal Museum

Benjamin Franklin as the first Postmaster General. His annual salary was $1,000.

National Postmark Museum Bellevue, Ohio

The best-selling commemorative stamp to date is the Elvis Stamp that was issued in 1993. Since then, USPS has come out with all kinds of intriguing stamps, including triangular, round and holographic stamps.

The Smithsonian National Postal Museum

2 Massachusetts Ave NE,

Washington, DC

With all the talk about the Post Office lately I was interested in a recent article in the Smithsonian Magazine about the history of the besieged institution and I discovered they had a museum for the institution (though if I’d have given it much thought I would have expected they did).

Anyway here’s some the facts you might not know:

Housed within the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian Postal Museum— Gatineau, Quebec

Veterans. The Postal Service employs more than 97,000 military veterans and is one of the largest employers of veterans in the country.

The British Postal Museum & Archive London, England

The British established a primitive postal system to connect the 13 colonies—but it was Benjamin Franklin, who oversaw it from 1753-1774. He improved it from primitive to an organization that was delivering mail from between Philadelphia and New York City in 33 hours (about 3 miles an hour which isn’t bad for those long ago days).

By the early 1770’s the leaders of the Revolution had an underground Constitutional Post and even before the Declaration of Independence they had turned the net work into the U.S. Postal Office.

It was James Madison who in 1792 denied a plan to allow for the cheap distribution of uncensored newspapers and the like to be sent cheaply, financed by the much higher rate of letters (that were mostly sent at that time by businesses, lawyers and the like).

The Postmuseum Stockholm, Sweden

America’s first president was the first one to be on general-issue stamps that were released in 1847, and since then, he’s been on more stamps than any other person.

The Japanese Postal Museum is within Tei-Park, Tokyo, Japan

By 1831 the country the country boasted twice the post offices of Britain and five times those of France. In 1840–sending a letter more than 150 miles cost twenty cents–about $6.00 today. The answer to protests and the use of cheaper private carriers. Congress converted the institution into a public service which no longer even had to break even.

During all this time the Postal Service subsidized private transportation companies and sent mail thru ships and the Panama Canal.

In the 1860 we got the short lived but very spectacular Pony Express that covered the distance from where the rail roads ended from St. Joe Missouri to Sacramento, CA—1,800 miles in 10 days.

The Pony Express Museum preserves the legacy and legend of the nation’s pioneering Far West mail carriers–St. Louis, MO

The National Museum of Postal Services and Telecommunication Rabat Morocco

That five cents didn’t include home delivery, though. If you wanted your mail, you had to go to the post office to get it. Free City Delivery wasn’t started until 1863 by an industrious postal worker in Cleveland, Ohio. He didn’t enjoy watching his female customers standing in line, in the freezing cold, waiting to get news from loved ones fighting in the war. To remedy the problem, he started delivering to his customers. Of course, this service was so popular that news quickly spread and postal home delivery became the new

post office in the Eiffel Tower.

During the Civil War the mail service was up-graded as they saved money by suspended service to the Confederate states.

It was also during this time (in 1864) that the first money orders were introduced. These allowed Union soldiers to send money home without the risk of sending cash. Oh and by the way, the postal service was the first institution to employ large numbers of women and African Americans.

In 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was complete giving the mail a service they could use instead of ponies.

Vanuatu Post’s Underwater Post Office; Republic of Vanuatu

The number of gallons of fuel used in 2009 was 444 million, at a cost of US$1.1 billion. The fleet is notable in that many of its vehicles are right-hand drive, an arrangement intended to give drivers the easiest access to roadside mailboxes. Some rural letter carriers use personal vehicles. All contractors use personal vehicles. Standard postal-owned vehicles do not have license plates. These vehicles are identified by a seven-digit number displayed on the front and rear.^Wikipedia

Post Office Bay; Floreana Island, Galapagos, Ecuador

1896: Rural Free Delivery was started

1913: Parcel Post was began

Bringing the rural population into the main stream.

They also began using planes for transporting mail and the postal service was the main support for the Aviation industry until the late 1920’s.

After World War II the service grew rapidly

Washington Park and Oregon Zoo; Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon

Street postboxes used to sport various colors in the past until they got standardized to blue in 1971. Before that they had been green, red and white, among others.

Madison Square Post Office; New York, New York

But with growth came increased cash problems. So in 1970 Congress made it into the US Postal Service, a government business which interestingly enough, according to the article hasn’t received a tax dollar since 1982,

As usual Congress’ over sight cost money and provided more burdens. It’s Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act in 2006 required that the service pre-fund its retiree’s health benefits–resulting in tens of billions of dollars of debt.

Oh and despite all that negative press the Gallup Poll of 2019 found that the Post Office was the Federal Service that Americans rated most highly.

Post Office of Mardin; Mardin, Turkey

It may be a cliché, but the mailman-hating dog is a real problem. In fact, close to 6,000 mail carriers are bitten or attacked by dogs each year, inspiring the post office to sponsor an annual National Dog Bite Awareness Week in June. To stave off potential problems, the USPS advises homeowners to secure their pets before opening the door to accept a package, refrain from taking mail directly from the mail carrier’s hands in the presence of your dog (some canines can perceive this as a threatening gesture), and remember that mail carriers who feel threatened by an unsecured dog can refuse to deliver mail directly to your home.

Austrian Postal Savings Bank; Vienna, Austria

With the internet, Face Book, Email and the like the Post Office mostly delivers parcels of all kinds (and if my mail is any indication junk mail keeps them busy as well). This seems to have been a good thing—again the article says that between 2018 to 2019 the service had a $1.3 billion increase in its revenue.

In 2020 it has been a great deliver of stimulant checks and don’t forget all those ballots—being received and hopefully mailed back again…..as well as getting test results and the like.

Polish Post Museum; Gdansk, Poland

Vote early: If you do plan to vote by mail, voting early can help ensure that the USPS is not overwhelmed at the last minute. The website Vote.org has a good roundup of early-voting rules by state.

U.S. Post Office, Christmas, Florida