The History of Mail Order and Postal Services in America by https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y By: Tharun Potluri en-us 2019-01-14 22:16:39 UTC 2025-09-26 18:06:30 UTC hello@padlet.com Overview thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/320729561 The growth of a consumer economy stimulates positive change through the uprising of entrepreneurship and inventions that benefit the public and progress the American lifestyle. Specifically, during the late 1900’s, the creation of mail order and postal services were influential developments that eventually transformed and inspired the uprising of companies such as UPS, FedEx, and USPS, who have significant impacts on America today, by establishing a new and groundbreaking method of shipping goods by mail delivery. 

]]> 2019-01-15 13:12:47 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/320729561 First Vehicle Used to Deliver Post in Baltimore, Maryland in 1906 thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321521701 2019-01-17 02:20:34 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321521701 thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321522065 The initiation of vehicles to be used in postal delivery was a big step towards the goal of transporting goods as fast as possible throughout America. Each automobile had a special compartment for holding mail sacks in order to maximize the amount of mail that could be carried. The Post Office Department faced a troubling crisis, however, when the government passed a bill which commenced the Parcel Post, a cheaper alternative to regular shipping. Due to the unequivocal widespread acceptance for this new service, the shipping vehicles, known as mail wagons, were swamped with about four million packages in the first week. As a response to this, Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock issued 100 additional mail wagons to combat the growing parcel trend. Overtime, this idea of using vehicles to transport goods across the country has evolved into a diverse range of package delivery systems that are integral to the nation’s lifestyle and commerce. Today, the United States Postal Service (USPS) mans over 200 thousand vehicles giving it the title of the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world. There is no doubt that without the invention of the mail wagon, package delivery wouldn’t be where it is today. ]]> 2019-01-17 02:22:43 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321522065 Excerpt From Nancy F. Koehn's Article: "Consumerism and Consumption" thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321612407 By the end of the century several important new outlets had emerged, including chain stores, department stores, and mail-order houses. A. Montgomery Ward published his first mail-order catalog in 1872. His venture was a huge success, and by the 1890s his catalog totaled more than one thousand pages, had a circulation of 730,000, and elicited an average of two and a half orders per catalog. The arrival of the Montgomery Ward catalog, one customer remembered, “was like having Christmas come three or four times a year.” Spurred on by Ward’s accomplishment and the advent of rural free delivery in 1896, other retailers such as Sears, Roebuck also began offering goods by mail. By the end of the century almost twelve hundred mail-order concerns were competing for more than 6 million customers.]]> 2019-01-17 10:47:10 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321612407 thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321612567 One of the first mail-order catalogs, published in 1872 by Montgomery Ward, pioneered the growth of advertising and shipping in America. The catalog, a vital link to an expanding world of goods, gave people the opportunity to buy what they wanted and have it shipped to them through a private mail delivery system that was cheaper and faster than government administered services. This attracted the attention of farmers and others from the rural midwest who would not have normally had access to such prominent merchandise. 
Inspired by Montgomery Ward and other prominent businesses a few centuries before, catalogues today have been replaced by online advertising and companies like Amazon are dominating the market with cheap and fast shipping. Ultimately, the concept of catalogs and mail delivery systems evolved into multinational corporations and services that are arguably one of the biggest contributors to America’s booming economy. 
]]> 2019-01-17 10:47:52 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321612567 Parcel Post area of a mailing warehouse, U.S. Post Office, Washington D.C, 1920 thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321689202 2019-01-17 14:25:30 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321689202 thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321990246 Around the 1920’s, the first few mailing warehouses started popping up all throughout the country. Hundreds of workers were hired to work in the warehouses as well as to be mail carriers, now commonly know as mail men. On average, a regular household would get deliveries twice a day while bigger businesses wold receive packages up to seven times a day. These jobs were extremely demanding, but as labor labor laws went into affect Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock reduced the number of deliveries per day down to one, a regulation that is still in practice today. The postal service in America has evolved immensely throughout multiple decades and now roughly 6.3 million packages are shipped by the United States Postal service each day, a stark contrast to the 500 thousand packages that were delivered per day in the mid-1900’s. If it wasn’t for the appearance of warehouses, mail carriers, and important decrees, there is a good chance that the modern mail delivery system wouldn’t be what it is today. ]]> 2019-01-18 03:46:11 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321990246 Quote by Frank H. Platt, 1914 thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321990328 The agitation began with him and developed among the other mall-order houses and department-store owners about the time of the abolition of rebates by the express companies. There was never much of a real demand for the parcel post outside of that stirred up by them. Being great advertisers, they had the press, and that is the whole story. The parcel post is principally and subsidy of the mail-order and department-store people, and is paid for by the United States out of the additional revenue coming from the income tax. ]]> 2019-01-18 03:46:56 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321990328 thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321990589 Frank. H Platt, the owner of the United States Express Company (a private shipping company that lasted from 1854 to 1914), was a vocal opponent of the mail-oder and Parcel Post service. The person Mr. Platt was referring to in this statement was John Wanamaker, the 38th Postmaster General. On the contrary of Mr. Wanamaker, Mr. Platt argued that “there was never much of a real demand for the parcel post” and that the money people spent towards shipping went mostly to the “mail-order and department-store people.”  However, one aspect that Mr. Platt neglected to consider were the consumers themselves. In present times, the postal service is one of the most relied upon services for delivering goods and such an impressive achievement can only be credited to consumers and their constant demand for more. It is clear to say that though some detractors were weary of a postal service, the advent of it made significant impacts of the American lifestyle as it still does today. ]]> 2019-01-18 03:49:29 UTC https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321990589 Works Cited thapot211_1 https://padlet.com/thapot211_1/49m9l7hlh53y/wish/321990651
“Daily Deliveries Down to One - 1950.” National Postal Museum, postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2016/04/daily-deliveries-down-to-one-1950.html.

Hevrdejs, Judy. “Montgomery Ward's First Catalog.” Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 18 July 2008, www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-firstcatalog-story-story.html.

Koehn, N. F. "Consumerism and Consumption." In The Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Morton Keller. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2000, Consumerism and Consumption - Galehttps://www.gale.com/.../gps_newsvault_19thcentury_usnewspapers_consumerism_ess...

“Mail by Motor.” Smithsonian National Postal Museum,     postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/current/customers-and-communities/serving-the-cities/overcoming-congestion/mail-by-motorl.html.

Nosowitz, Dan. “From Pony Express to Amazon Drone: The Strange History of Delivering Packages.” Atlas Obscura, Atlas Obscura, 27 Aug. 2015, www.atlasobscura.com/articles/from-pony-express-to-amazon-drone-the-strange-history-of-delivering-packages.

“The Commercial & Financial Chronicle ...” Google Books, books.google.com/books?\id=KcIzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA883&lpg=PA883&dq=frank%2Bh%2Bplatt%2Bagainst%2Bpostal%2Bservice&source=bl&ots=38GX3yhg6b&sig=CXkQWF8WHBWPQLFeplZCMeS5zgM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjI49b0_fLfAhUKhuAKHdDyAuAQ6AEwB3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=frank%20h%20platt%20against%20postal%20service&f=false.

“100 Years of Parcels, Packages, and Packets, Oh My!” Airmail in America, postalmuseum.si.edu/parcelpost100/p2.html#_ftnref2.

100 Years of Parcel Post. Office of Inspector General , 2013, www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2015/rarc-wp-14-004_0.pdf.
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