The Kaweah Post Office (ZIP code 93271) building in Three Rivers is one of the oldest functioning post offices in the United States, dating back to 1910.
Christina Tang-Bernas, California, 2023
On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the United States postal system and appointed soon-to-be founding father Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general. What is today known as the United States Postal Service was far from the first postal system, but it is among the world’s best, according to the Universal Postal Union.
Receiving surprise letters, greeting cards, packages and gifts in the mail—and not just advertisements and bills—remains one of life’s simple pleasures. Even with the introduction of email and text messaging, the Postal Service continues its mission to deliver. All the while, it’s remained an integral part of American culture.
Letters with typed addresses are on display at the Randolph Post Office, part of the recreated 19th-century village at Stone Garden Farm in Richfield.
Anne Kline, Ohio, 2019
A cozy 5-by-6-foot structure, the Grimshawes “shack” was home to the nation’s smallest post office from 1878 to 1953.
Barry Vangrov, North Carolina, 2017
If you show up to the Valle Crucis mail center at the Original Mast General Store at 12:30 p.m., this friendly face will not be on duty to greet you—it’s lunchtime.
Tom Gillespie, North Carolina, 2016
Combination locks still guard the mail in these vintage boxes that share a space with a restaurant.
Alan Kolnik, Vermont, 2014
A shining letterbox is affixed to the wall between elevators at the Luhrs Tower, built in 1929.
Joseph Guzman, Arizona, 2010
The mail carrier for this region has fewer stops to make, thanks to these mailboxes consolidated at the fork in the road.
Laurence Scott, California, 2012
A stamp featuring the iconic Statue of Liberty is among those that each represent Americana.
Sunny Jenson, California, 2011
Of the United States Postal Service’s more than 500,000 employees, approximately 6,450 are mail carriers who deliver on foot. Every now and then, one takes a break.
Steve Disenhof, California, 2018
According to the Postal Service’s website, the well-known phrase, “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” is not technically its official motto.
Virginia Filer, Washington, D.C., 2016
This general store in the rural Deep South also functions as a post office and gas station.
Paul Silver, Florida, 2014
In early 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, a masked resident looks out of his mail slot for some socially distant human interaction.
Harvey Castro, California, 2020
Once the post office for ZIP code 90920, this historic building in Kelso opened in 1905 and closed in 1962.
Dan Gindling, California, 2009
Eight metal mailboxes protrude from a clay wall in Santa Fe.
Tien-Chien Chen, New Mexico, 2010
Large deliveries may have to be left on the decorative tile floor below this thin mail slot.
William Johnson, Illinois, 2017
Tracy Scott Forson is a senior editor at Smithsonian magazine.
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