PI 168 Description:
27. SCRAPBOOK OF CIRCULARS, NOTICES, INSTRUCTIONS, REGULATIONS, AND NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS. 1823-1871. 1 vol. 2 in.
The circulars and notices relate to the franking privilege, type of mail handled, postage stamps, postage rates, express mail, establishment of post offices, political activities of personnel, private mail service, transportation of mail by way of the Isthmus of Panama, safety of mail service on railroads, railway mail cars, changes in mail routes and schedules, mail-route contracts, mail locks and keys, military mail service, mutilated US. currency, and the method of handling inquires.
The instructions and regulations relate to the reorganization of the Post Office Department, private mail service, railway mail-route contracts, dead letters, registration of postage stamps and stamped envelopes, abolishment of payment of commissions to postmasters, mail-route carriers, conveyance of mailbags to Members of Congress, activities of route agents, and the franking privilege.
The clippings are chiefly editorials and letters to the editor concerning the postal system but also include news items containing information of research value about the growth of the system, such as information on the distribution of anti-slavery publications, the operations of Pomeroy & Co. (private mail carriers), and irregularities allegedly committed by postal officials.
Also included in the scrapbook are the petition of citizens of the County of Herkimer, N.Y., for a reduction in postage rates; orders of the Postmaster General concerning office hours, uniform postage rates between the United States and Canada, and suspension of mail service in the southern States; forms used by the Contract Office, the Appointment Office, and the Office of the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department; memorials for the transportation of foreign mail by steamship; and advertisements for contracts for steam mail service between New York and New Orleans.
National Archives Identifier (NAID): 2643394
This Series is not online.
Nara Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2643394
This Series has not been microfilmed .
PDF of Scans from the Series: