To think, USPS (current acronym) once carried mainly letter mail. Directly linked to our “Pen Hobby” as most letters were originally handwritten with: dip, eye dropper, fountain pens.
This is an interesting story, that quite possibly brought us to today’s topic:
“ In 1914, John and Sarah Pierstorff didn’t want to pay for a pricy train ticket to send their daughter across Idaho. Instead they affixed 53 cents in stamps to her winter coat. Charlotte May Pierstorff, who was five years old, rode in the train’s mail compartment, and was handed off to her grandmother by a postal clerk.
Americans had just embraced the latest innovation from what was then called The United States Post Office Department: for the first time, letter carriers were carrying packages too. Several families apparently decided this was a good way to transport children. The Postmaster General received a letter in 1913inquiring about the appropriate way to wrap a baby; the customer noted that the Post Office was more trustworthy than the privately owned companies it competed against, which would be too “rough in handling.”
Over the course of more than 250 years, the U.S. Postal Service has gone through many shifts to keep up with technology and culture—including switching its focus from newspapers to letters to package delivery service. That flexibility has kept the institution relevant...”
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