Signed, Sealed, and Delivered.

Although now a familiar sight at busy intersections in every city, mailboxes were not used until the 1850s, after the introduction of postage stamps. Before 1847, everyone had to take his or her letters to the post office, pay the postage, and have the postmaster mark each item “paid.” After the introduction of stamps, people wanted a more convenient place to drop-off their mail than the post office. In the 1850s, the Post Office Department began installing collection mailboxes outside of post offices and on street corners in large cities. People can drop their letters in these mailboxes throughout the day, and the postal service collects the accumulated mail at specific times, usually marked on the box.
On March 9, 1858, the first U.S. patent for a street mailbox was patented by Albert Potts of Philadelphia (No.19578). It comprised a simple metal box designed to attach to a lamppost. By August, these boxes were found along the streets of Boston, Mass., and New York City, N.Y. His patent described the "object of this improvement is to afford greater facilities to the inhabitants of large cities for the depositing of letters, and to enable the carriers to collect, or the citizens to deposit therein, at any period of time." The boxes had a central hole for the shaft of a lamp post, lids covering the drop hole to exclude weather, a sight hole so a carrier could see if any letters had been deposited, and a small door secured with a lock for the carrier to empty the box.

Even though e-mail has become the first method by which most of us now "mail", there is nothing like the thrill of pulling out a real, honest to goodness card or letter from your mailbox. It almost makes all that junk mail bearable!

In honor of Albert Potts and the ease with which his invention made "depositing a letter", send a real letter to someone today. There are loads of great note cards out there. Etsypaper has many talented artists that design cards and stationary. Etsygreetings even has a blog dedicated to the beauty of the handmade card that often includes giveaways. Of course you can always stop by my etsy shop and pick up a few things to have handy to "drop in the mailbox". When you do, think of Albert and smile.