When John Wanamaker was appointed to be the Post Master General in 1889, he implemented many changes that are still in use today. He started the use of commemorative stamps, and was so confident it would work that he personally bought $10,000 dollars worth of them. He made plans to have the first free rural service postal program, which would have mail carriers go to rural areas where most mail services weren’t available. In addition to these, he also designed an underground system of tubes for swift mail delivery in Philadelphia, New York, St. Louis, Boston and Chicago. Each tube could fit over 600 letters and yet be able to be dispatched every 6 to 15 seconds. It highly improved distribution between stations, and could get mail to trains before they took off.
Creator
Bain News Service
Date
July 22, 1915
Source
John Wanamaker
A black and white photograph of John Wanamaker, the 35th United States Post Master General. Source: Pope, Nancy. (2007). John Wanamaker Portrait. National Postal Museum. Retrieved Oct 26, 2012, from http://bit.ly/S4PHFv