The Tip of the Iceberg

The twelve vignettes presented in this booklet are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to postal history. We didn’t touch on the ways in which mail was carried during the colonial era (far left), the time the postal service enacted a tax to repay debts after the War of 1812 (middle left), the express mail service that predated the Pony Express by over two decades (middle right), or the first transatlantic steamships (far right). One could fill entire volumes on these and countless other topics, as many before me have. But every journey must start somewhere, and I hope that the stories we’ve explored have kindled an interest to learn more about our nation’s postal past.

For those who are interested in learning more about American postal history, there are a number of wonderful societies and publications. We invite you to visit the organizations listed here to find out more about the research they are conducting that continues to shed new light on our philatelic past.