Postal Services
Pop-Up Postcards
We know that Pop-Up books are a well-liked category. So why not apply the notion to postcards?Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 11, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Patents, 1900s, Postal Services
Beforehand Postcards
The concept of Beforehand Postcards was that, if you were going on vacation to Europe, you could buy your postcards from them beforehand. Then you could address the cards, and maybe even write them, before you left. Once you arrived in Europe, all you would have to do was mail them.The business lasted a little over ten years, from the early 1970s to the mid 1980s.
Philadelphia Inquirer - June 17, 1973
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 29, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Tourists and Tourism, 1970s, Postal Services
The Zip Code Boardgame
Trains children for future careers in snailmail.Entry at Board Game Geek is here.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 19, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Games, 1960s, Postal Services
The Whole Damm Family
Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 15, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Family, Humor, Music, 1900s, Postal Services, Double Entendres and Nudge-Nudge, Wink-Wink
Zip Code Music
Appearing in a post office film didn't seem to do much for the musical career of the Swingin' Six.
Indianapolis Star - Nov 4, 1966
via Postal Museum (Smithsonian)
Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 27, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Music, 1960s, Postal Services
The Mailomat
Very handy for Xmas rush!Article source: Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California)10 Dec 1939, Sun Page 59
Another good article here, with more pics.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 24, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions, Technology, 1930s, 1940s, Postal Services
Wife Swapping By Mail
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jul 22, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Husbands, Wives, 1960s, Sex, Postal Services
Stamp-Licking Animals
Martin Wainwright tells the following story in The "Guardian" Book of April Fool's Day:Like the best April Fool's jokes, this was to girdle the Earth. Not only was the post office besieged by punters wanting to send catlick mail (until the cat was driven demented and fled after two days) but the story spread and resurfaced for years. Animal protection societies weighed in, MPs spoke and the innocuous prank took off. Bone's friend was send clippings from across the country and, as the years went by, from Australia, Shanghai and the United States.
This suggests that stamp-licking animals were a journalistic invention. However, there do seem to have been some real-life examples of the phenomenon.
Longview Daily News - Dec 13, 1974
The Bloomington Pantagraph - Mar 11, 1951
"Ashley practiced stamp-licking until he had the task down purrfectly, then offered to kick off the Organization for Responsible Care of Animals' public appeal... In return for his generosity, each donor will receive a thank-you note enclosed in an Ashley-licked envelope with stamp attached."
Lancaster Sunday News - Oct 6, 1985
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 17, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Cats, Dogs, Postal Services, Stamps
Mail-Delivering Cats
1879: Reports reached America of experiments conducted in the city of Liege, Belgium to determine if cats could be used to deliver mail. Three dozen cats were said to have been placed in bags and then taken several miles out of the city. They were then released, after a message had been tied to each one. The cats reportedly made it back to their homes in Liege before the humans did.Plans were said to be in the works "to establish a regular system of cat communication between Liege and the neighboring villages".
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal - Mar 26, 1879
The Chicago Inter Ocean - Oct 28, 1879
Posted By: Alex - Fri Apr 30, 2021 -
Comments (3)
Category: Cats, Nineteenth Century, Postal Services
Owney, the Taxidermy Post Office Dog
Mail clerks raised money for preserving their mascot and he was taken to the Post Office Department's headquarters in Washington, DC, where he was on placed on display for the public. In 1904 the Department added Owney to their display at the St. Louis, Missouri, World’s Fair. In 1911, the department transferred Owney to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1926, the Institution allowed Owney to travel to the Post Office Department’s exhibit at the Sesquicentennial exhibit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 1964-1992, he was displayed at the Smithsonian museum now known as the National Museum of American History and in 1993 he moved to the new National Postal Museum, where he remains on display next to a fabricated Railway Post Office train car.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 28, 2021 -
Comments (0)
Category: Travel, Trains and Other Vehicles on Rails, Dogs, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Postal Services
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |