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I& #39;m delighted that The Internet is just now realizing how awesome the USPS is! I love the mail and the post office, sending letters is one of my favorite activities and i used to volunteer at the @PostalMuseum. I even have a postage stamp tattoo! https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/14/834336341/hoping-to-save-the-postal-service-people-rush-to-buy-stamps?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social">https://www.npr.org/sections/...
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/14/834336341/hoping-to-save-the-postal-service-people-rush-to-buy-stamps?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
I& #39;m going to share a thread with some excellent historical reading about the @USPS. Not quite the post office syllabus (yet!) but that may still be in the works. This is incomplete because it& #39;s just what immediately comes to mind. Are you ready?
Two (relatively) recent books that I& #39;d direct folks to are Winifred Gallagher& #39;s "How the Post Office Created America" provides an approachable, readable overview of the institution and its impact https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143130062">https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780...
Philip F. Rubio (a former letter carrier), "There& #39;s Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality," is an excellent account of the intertwined labor and race dynamics of the 20th c USPS. https://uncpress.org/book/9780807859865/theres-always-work-at-the-post-office/">https://uncpress.org/book/9780...
Rubio just wrote another book, which I admit that I haven& #39;t read yet, about the 1970 postal strike! "Undelivered: From the Great Postal Strike of 1970 to the Manufactured Crisis of the U.S. Postal Service" https://uncpress.org/book/9781469655468/undelivered/">https://uncpress.org/book/9781...
Richard John& #39;s "Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse" is older but a classic and, like Gallagher& #39;s book, offers an excellent overview of the @USPS and its impact focused on the late 18th to the middle of the 19th centuries https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674833425">https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.p...
For how letter writing and affordable postage changed the way people interacted with each other (outside the US), I& #39;d encourage you to pick up "Posting it: The Victorian Revolution in Letter Writing" by Catherine Golden https://www.abebooks.com/Posting-Victorian-Revolution-Letter-Writing-Golden/30471224337/bd">https://www.abebooks.com/Posting-V...
Philately is its own thing and it& #39;s not, really, my expertise but there are a few great articles about nationalism and postage stamps! You might try "Stamps as iconography: Celebrating the independence of new European and Central Asian states" https://www.jstor.org/stable/41147570 ">https://www.jstor.org/stable/41...
The @APS_stamps has a number of resources on their website for folks interested in getting into (or back into) stamp collecting https://stamps.org/learn/getting-started">https://stamps.org/learn/get...
I& #39;d also strongly encourage you to visit the @PostalMuseum online (and in person when we& #39;re able to). They& #39;ve got a number of excellent virtual exhibitions you can explore from home here https://postalmuseum.si.edu/virtual-exhibitions">https://postalmuseum.si.edu/virtual-e...
That& #39;s all for now, I need to go do my actual job... send me more of your favorite readings on the USPS& #39; role in American history. I love the post office and really, really hope we& #39;re able to #SaveTheUSPS. Tonight, I& #39;ll write some letters.
One more thing, I& #39;d be remiss if I didn& #39;t point out that you can find stamp collections all over the place! @SciHistoryOrg has loads in their collections (you can see a selection in the digital collections). Now I can also justify writing this on work time https://digital.sciencehistory.org/collections/kw52j810t">https://digital.sciencehistory.org/collectio...
