Tag: mail

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The “Parcel Post Bank” Was Mailed To Its Construction Site, A Few Bricks At A Time

This day in 1916 was an important day in US Postal Service history - a rule change that came after the community of Vernal, Utah basically had a bank mailed to them, in installments of bricks.

New York City Used To Deliver Mail Through Pneumatic Tubes

Today in 2006, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens famously told his colleagues that the Internet was not a dumptruck, it was a series of tubes, figuratively speaking. But here’s a story about some literal tubes that New York City once used to deliver mail.

The “Six Triple Eight” Brought Black Excellence To The Army During World War II

Today in 1945, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, began heading to England for deployment. These 855 servicemembers, all Black women, took on a mission that may not have been glamorous but was considered absolutely essential to the war effort.

Why Don’t Astronauts Do Laundry In Space?

There was a story recently about how NASA was partnering with Tide laundry detergent to work on a way to do laundry in space. Which means we don’t already do laundry in space, and there are some pretty big reasons why.

How Ethel Merman Helped Get America To Use ZIP Codes

Today in 1963, the US Postal Service officially started using ZIP codes as a way to quickly sort huge amounts of mail and get it to where it needed to go. How did they get Americans to adopt ZIP codes? A mascot named Mr. Zip and a jingle sung by Broadway legend Ethel Merman.

Henry Brown Escaped From Slavery By Mailing Himself To Philadelphia

On this day in 1849, Henry Brown escaped slavery from a Virginia plantation in a very unusual way: he arranged it so he could hide in a small wooden box that was sent to Pennsylvania. Here's some of his story.

“Stagecoach” Mary Fields, Montana’s One-Of-A-Kind Mail Carrier

Mary Fields was the first Black woman to receive a Post Office contract to deliver the mail, and in the Wild West, no less. Here's a little more about a pioneer who definitely made some history.

Bees Doing It For Themselves

There are lots of human efforts to help bees out, but there’s also some new research out that says bees help themselves by taking steps to get plants to flower earlier than usual.

When Americans Could Mail Their Children From Place To Place

It was on this day in 1914 a family in Grangeville, Idaho sent a four year old through the mail to her grandmother in Lewiston, 73 miles away. And she wasn’t the only kid to travel this way.

Will Kryptos, The Unsolvable CIA Puzzle Sculpture, Finally Be Solved?

Kryptos is a puzzle sculpture that’s been on the grounds of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia since 1990. Three of its four coded messages have been solved - and now we have a clue that might reveal the fourth.

Received 600 Letters In Five Days

Who says snail mail is declining?

Meet Owney, The Legendary Postal Dog

The National Postal Museum in Washington, DC, has an exhibit telling the story of Owney, the dog who loved the mail so much that he helped deliver it all over the world.