7 Amazing Fun Facts About Mail You Never Knew!

1. Houston's Space Postmarks

Houston, we have a postmark: German space artist Detlev van Ravanswaay has designed commemorative pictorial postmarks featuring Russia's Soyuz piloted spacecraft and SpaceX's Dragon unmanned cargo capsule, which are used for delivering crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station. Available for Houston residents, these postmarks can be requested for any event date beginning Aug. 8, 2013 and going forward, as long as requests are received within 30 days of the requested date and sent to the Sam Houston Station Cancellations address in Houston, Texas.
Source => collectspace.com

2. Victorian Mail Etiquette

"Neither snow nor rain nor Victorian impatience...": In the Victorian era, a common request was a prompt "return of post", meaning they preferred their pen pals to send back lightning-quick responses, ideally within the same day's scheduled delivery, instead of lengthy soliloquies.
Source => nytimes.com

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3. Crash-Safe Mailboxes

Who knew mailboxes were so concerned about our safety? They've clearly taken a crash course in accident prevention: To minimize potential harm, the Federal Highway Administration recommends 4” x 4” wooden supports or 2”-diameter standard steel or aluminum pipes for mailboxes. This design ensures that they'll bend or collapse gracefully in case a vehicle collides with them, averting severe damage for both drivers and mail carriers.
Source => usps.com

4. Ben Franklin's Postal Innovations

When Ben Franklin wasn't busy flying kites in lightning storms or charming the French, he was a regular Robin Hood of the postal world, stealing from the rich... postage fees and giving to the poor... readers: As postmaster in Philadelphia, Franklin used his franking privilege to mail his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, for free, skyrocketing its circulation and turning it into one of the most successful publications in the colonies. The witty founding father also served as postmaster for all 13 colonies, revolutionizing mail delivery with innovations like a flat rate for newspapers and a 24-hour turnaround for letters between Philadelphia and New York. As a result, Franklin's postal prowess helped lay the foundations for America's nascent democracy and connected its citizens through the power of the written word.
Source => history.com

5. Ancient Egyptian Cat Mail

Litter-al punishment: As much as the ancient Egyptians held cats in high regard, even believing that killing one could result in harsh penalties, there's no supporting evidence to suggest that harming a feline while delivering mail was considered a crime worthy of death.
Source => daily.jstor.org

6. The Impact of Prepaid Postage

In the days of yore when the Pony Express was a snail's pace and sending a letter wasn't as easy as licking a stamp, the phrase "going postal" had a completely different meaning: Mail recipients were once responsible for subjecting their wallets to a perilous journey, shelling out vast sums based on distance and weight to retrieve their precious parcels. However, the plot thickened as Roland Hill's ingenious invention of prepaid postage stamps disrupted the epistolary landscape, allowing mail to be dispatched more affordably and conveniently, separating our present from our past in more ways than one.
Source => innovationmanagement.se

7. WWI Pigeon Mail Heroes

Move over, modern mailman – these daredevil pigeons were the 1910s version of express delivery, risking life and wing to get those letters across enemy lines: During World War I, carrier pigeons achieved an impressive 95% success rate in delivering messages across Europe, as confirmed by the US Army's Signal Corps. One lost message, engulfed in mud for over a century, was recently unearthed in eastern France, revealing an infantry soldier's account of German maneuvers in the region, with three other copies of the message suggesting a well-orchestrated communication network.
Source => nypost.com