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Vintage photos trace the unsung genius of the Post Office

From flying sorting centers to delivery by missile, the history of America's postal service is chock full of weird, innovative ideas

Picture of Kelly Gonsalves
by Kelly Gonsalves
October 9, 2017

1908.

(The Smithsonian National Postal Museum via Flickr)But in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the national mail service was the country's beating heart of innovation.

1922

An early airmail plane parked next to a U.S. mail truck.

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1814

The Village Tavern, by John Lewis Krimmel, depicts the tavern as mail hub, with a mail carrier (left) walking through the door and a desk for writing in the corner.

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1885

City letter carriers with handcarts used to collect and transport mail.

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1905

A row of one-man mail wagons used to collect mail from city mailboxes.

1897

Workers at a New York City post office load cannisters of mail into pneumatic tubes.

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1910

Dog sleds transporting mail in Alaska.

1912

A mail motorcycle in Washington, D.C.

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1918

New York City Postmaster Thomas G. Patten hands Lt. Torrey Webb a bag of letters for one of the first regularly scheduled airmail flights in the U.S.

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1920

Clerks sort mail inside the tight quarters of a Railway Post Office car.

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1941

The first Highway Post Office bus in Strasburg, Virginia.

1959

A U.S. Navy Regulus I missile, containing mail, is fired from the USS Barbero for the first, and last, official missile mail experiment.

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1955

The "mailster."

1954

A carrier delivering mail in a right-hand drive van, similar to the ones seen on the road today.

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