Stories From The Collection

The War Rate

Given the financial woes of the United States Postal Service today, one could hardly expect the government to finance a war by raising the cost of mailing a letter. But that’s exactly what we did in 1815, when all postage rates were increased by 50% in order to help cover debts incurred during the War of 1812. Previously, a piece of mail entering the United States at the Philadelphia port would have been charged 6 cents; the letter shown here, sent in July of 1815, was assessed the new rate of 9 cents (as evidenced by the red postmark, a great rarity for collectors of Philadelphia postal history). A letter such as this, while seemingly ordinary, gives modern historians a fascinating look at how the government sought to address mounting war debts during the nation’s earliest decades.

Full Rigged Ship

One of the most iconic and celebrated of all American postal markings is the Full-Rigged Ship of Philadelphia, used between 1834 and 1835 on incoming mail that entered the United States at Philadelphia but was addressed to other cities. While the vast majority of postmarks from this time erred on the side of the mundane, this particular marking boldly announced its purpose: that a particular letter had been carried by ship en route to Philadelphia. Such postmark devices were typically delicate and wore out quickly; the fact that this particular letter bears such a detailed and intricate strike makes it a true gem for the connoisseur.

The Postal Act of 1845

It is difficult to understand just how significant the Postal Act of 1845 was to the development of written communication in America. Whereas previous postage rates were obtuse, expensive, and heavily dependent on the distance a letter was to travel, the new rates that went into effect on July 1, 1845 were both cheap and simple: 5 cents for a half-ounce letter sent under 300 miles, or 10 cents if over 300 miles. The letter pictured here left England on the steamship Acadia on June 19, 1845 and arrived in Philadelphia on July 2: the day after the new rates were implemented, making this an early artifact from one of the most important eras in the history of the post.