An American Postal Portrait

An American Postal Portrait PDF Author: United States Postal Service
Publisher: Collins Reference
ISBN: 9780060199005
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
The mail has a powerful connection with the American people. Who hasn't shared the experience of waiting eagerly for a letter to arrive or felt the rush of excitement at hearing footsteps near the door signaling the arrival of a delivery? This first-ever photographic history of the United States Postal Service pays tribute to the everyday people who have worked through rain, sleet, and snow to bring mail to American families. In over 200 rarely seen photographs, beginning with the advent of photography in 1860 and continuing to the present, An American Postal Portrait celebrates the fascinating behind-the-scenes stories, the innovative technological accomplishments, and the unique imprint the Postal Service workforce has made on American life. Starting with the earliest Post Office outposts on the remote western frontier, the photographs highlight the great events, ideas, and inventions of the past century and a half--from mail delivery by stagecoach and horseback to the rapid utilization of the railroads and airplanes to the sophisticated sorting machines automating the processing of mail today. Captivating and unforgettable, these pages trace our nation's progress from its rural and isolated past to the high-tech, information-driven present, revealing a Postal Service that has helped to bind our growing nation together--one that continues to march in unison with America into the future. Compiled from the collection of the United States Postal Service, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and other sources, An American Postal Portrait is a well-deserved tribute to our nation's foremost communications institution and the enduring American spirit. For more than 200 years, the United States Postal Service has provided the American people with a secure and efficient delivery connection that binds our nation together. Today, postal employees handle approximately 41 percent of the world's volume--more than 650 million pieces every day, 3.9 billion pieces every week--delivering to a total of 130 million households and businesses. The United States Postal Service is the universal gateway to the American household.

An American Postal Portrait

An American Postal Portrait PDF Author: United States Postal Service
Publisher: Collins Reference
ISBN: 9780060199005
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
The mail has a powerful connection with the American people. Who hasn't shared the experience of waiting eagerly for a letter to arrive or felt the rush of excitement at hearing footsteps near the door signaling the arrival of a delivery? This first-ever photographic history of the United States Postal Service pays tribute to the everyday people who have worked through rain, sleet, and snow to bring mail to American families. In over 200 rarely seen photographs, beginning with the advent of photography in 1860 and continuing to the present, An American Postal Portrait celebrates the fascinating behind-the-scenes stories, the innovative technological accomplishments, and the unique imprint the Postal Service workforce has made on American life. Starting with the earliest Post Office outposts on the remote western frontier, the photographs highlight the great events, ideas, and inventions of the past century and a half--from mail delivery by stagecoach and horseback to the rapid utilization of the railroads and airplanes to the sophisticated sorting machines automating the processing of mail today. Captivating and unforgettable, these pages trace our nation's progress from its rural and isolated past to the high-tech, information-driven present, revealing a Postal Service that has helped to bind our growing nation together--one that continues to march in unison with America into the future. Compiled from the collection of the United States Postal Service, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and other sources, An American Postal Portrait is a well-deserved tribute to our nation's foremost communications institution and the enduring American spirit. For more than 200 years, the United States Postal Service has provided the American people with a secure and efficient delivery connection that binds our nation together. Today, postal employees handle approximately 41 percent of the world's volume--more than 650 million pieces every day, 3.9 billion pieces every week--delivering to a total of 130 million households and businesses. The United States Postal Service is the universal gateway to the American household.

An American Postal Portrait

An American Postal Portrait PDF Author: Patrick McCabe
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780756794088
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
This first-ever photographic history of the U.S. Postal Service pays tribute to the everyday people who have worked through the rain, sleet, & snow to bring mail to American families. In over 200 rarely seen photographs, beginning with the advent of photography in 1860 & continuing to the present, this book celebrates the fascinating behind-the-scenes stories, the innovative technological accomplishment, & the unique imprint the Postal Service workforce has made on American life. Captivating & unforgettable, these pages trace our nation's progress from its rural & isolated past to the high-tech, information-driven present, revealing a Postal Service that has helped to bind our growing nation together.

American Portrait

American Portrait PDF Author: PBS
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0063098911
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Based on the popular and revolutionary PBS multiplatform documentary project, an inspiring and striking photographic portrait that brilliantly captures the tumultuous, historic year that was 2020, offering an intimate look at the heart and soul of our national life and what it means to be an American today, revealed through the stories of ordinary people from sea to shining sea. Everyone has a story . . . In January 2020, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, PBS launched an ambitious national storytelling project, American Portrait, inviting people across the country to participate in a national conversation about what it means to be an American today. The multiplatform experience, including a television series that will air on PBS stations nationwide in January 2021, has created a communal voice through the individual stories of participants—each one a unique stitch in the beautiful, diverse quilt that is America. A vivid yet nuanced snapshot of who we are, this visually striking companion volume features more than 400 entries and photographs, all which began with an answer to a simple cue: My American story started when . . . You don’t know what it’s like to . . . My greatest challenge is . . . The tradition I carry on is . . . I was raised to believe . . . What keeps me up at night is . . . I took a risk when . . . When I step outside my door . . . Most days I feel . . . Told by people of all ages, orientations, and walks of life, these unique stories of joy, adversity, love, sacrifice, grief, sharing, triumph, and grace, centered on the themes of family, work, fun, faith, and community, illuminate the struggles, hopes, dreams, and convictions of Americans today. The more we share with our fellow citizens, the more we can see a real, complex, and fascinating representation of our country that is far richer and deeper than headlines and elections tell us. As intriguing, thoughtful, and distinct as the nation it embodies, American Portrait is a photographic manifestation of Walt Whitman’s immortal words, “I am large. I contain multitudes”—and a vital and ultimately hopeful reminder that what we all share is much greater and enduring than what may divide us.

On the Farm

On the Farm PDF Author: Aliza Eliazarov
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
ISBN: 198485741X
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
A collection of moving and soulful portraits of beloved farm animals, alongside surprising facts, entertaining anecdotes, and captivating histories of these heritage breeds on American farms. “The beauty and breadth of heritage animal breeds is on full display in this delightful and gorgeous book.”—Isabella Rossellini, actress and author of My Chickens and I Animal lovers, homesteaders, eco-conscious consumers, and fans of beautiful photography alike will cherish the charm of On the Farm’s stunning portraits and stories. With over 150 photographs, renowned animal photographer Aliza Eliazarov invites us to take a closer look at the animal breeds taking center stage in the regenerative farming movement. Along with fun facts about the domesticated animals who have shaped and changed our world—goats, sheep, cows, horses, donkeys, llamas, alpacas, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and farm dogs—On the Farm features sometimes quirky, sometimes harrowing personal tales of amazing animals. Meet Bilbo, the donkey in love with truck tires; Kurt, the diminutive Angora goat with a miraculous birth story;and Princess Peppermint, an anxious pig with a taste for cocktails. The focus on rare and heritage breeds will enlighten and inform you about the astonishing variety of livestock and poultry, as well as the impact that the loss of this biodiversity is having on global food security. Equal parts fine art and field guide, shot entirely on location at small farms and homesteads, On the Farm delivers us to the pastoral with an enjoyable meditation on the animals that civilization has grown alongside.

Neither Snow Nor Rain

Neither Snow Nor Rain PDF Author: Devin Leonard
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802189970
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
“[The] book makes you care what happens to its main protagonist, the U.S. Postal Service itself. And, as such, it leaves you at the end in suspense.” —USA Today Founded by Benjamin Franklin, the United States Postal Service was the information network that bound far-flung Americans together, and yet, it is slowly vanishing. Critics say it is slow and archaic. Mail volume is down. The workforce is shrinking. Post offices are closing. In Neither Snow Nor Rain, journalist Devin Leonard tackles the fascinating, centuries-long history of the USPS, from the first letter carriers through Franklin’s days, when postmasters worked out of their homes and post roads cut new paths through the wilderness. Under Andrew Jackson, the post office was molded into a vast patronage machine, and by the 1870s, over seventy percent of federal employees were postal workers. As the country boomed, USPS aggressively developed new technology, from mobile post offices on railroads and airmail service to mechanical sorting machines and optical character readers. Neither Snow Nor Rain is a rich, multifaceted history, full of remarkable characters, from the stamp-collecting FDR, to the revolutionaries who challenged USPS’s monopoly on mail, to the renegade union members who brought the system—and the country—to a halt in the 1970s. “Delectably readable . . . Leonard’s account offers surprises on almost every other page . . . [and] delivers both the triumphs and travails with clarity, wit and heart.” —Chicago Tribune

How the Post Office Created America

How the Post Office Created America PDF Author: Winifred Gallagher
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399564039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A masterful history of a long underappreciated institution, How the Post Office Created America examines the surprising role of the postal service in our nation’s political, social, economic, and physical development. The founders established the post office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time, it was the U.S. government’s largest and most important endeavor—indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind thirteen quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen—a radical idea that appalled Europe’s great powers. America’s uniquely democratic post powerfully shaped its lively, argumentative culture of uncensored ideas and opinions and made it the world’s information and communications superpower with astonishing speed. Winifred Gallagher presents the history of the post office as America’s own story, told from a fresh perspective over more than two centuries. The mandate to deliver the mail—then “the media”—imposed the federal footprint on vast, often contested parts of the continent and transformed a wilderness into a social landscape of post roads and villages centered on post offices. The post was the catalyst of the nation’s transportation grid, from the stagecoach lines to the airlines, and the lifeline of the great migration from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It enabled America to shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy and to develop the publishing industry, the consumer culture, and the political party system. Still one of the country’s two major civilian employers, the post was the first to hire women, African Americans, and other minorities for positions in public life. Starved by two world wars and the Great Depression, confronted with the country’s increasingly anti-institutional mind-set, and struggling with its doubled mail volume, the post stumbled badly in the turbulent 1960s. Distracted by the ensuing modernization of its traditional services, however, it failed to transition from paper mail to email, which prescient observers saw as its logical next step. Now the post office is at a crossroads. Before deciding its future, Americans should understand what this grand yet overlooked institution has accomplished since 1775 and consider what it should and could contribute in the twenty-first century. Gallagher argues that now, more than ever before, the imperiled post office deserves this effort, because just as the founders anticipated, it created forward-looking, communication-oriented, idea-driven America.

How the Post Office Created America

How the Post Office Created America PDF Author: Winifred Gallagher
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143130064
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
“’The history of its Post Office is nothing less than the story of America,’ Ms. Gallagher’s opening sentence declares, and in this lively book she makes the case well.”—Wall Street Journal A masterful history of a long underappreciated institution, How the Post Office Created America examines the surprising role of the postal service in our nation’s political, social, economic, and physical development. The founders established the post office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time, it was the U.S. government’s largest and most important endeavor—indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind thirteen quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen—a radical idea that appalled Europe’s great powers. America’s uniquely democratic post powerfully shaped its lively, argumentative culture of uncensored ideas and opinions and made it the world’s information and communications superpower with astonishing speed. Winifred Gallagher presents the history of the post office as America’s own story, told from a fresh perspective over more than two centuries. The mandate to deliver the mail—then “the media”—imposed the federal footprint on vast, often contested parts of the continent and transformed a wilderness into a social landscape of post roads and villages centered on post offices. The post was the catalyst of the nation’s transportation grid, from the stagecoach lines to the airlines, and the lifeline of the great migration from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It enabled America to shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy and to develop the publishing industry, the consumer culture, and the political party system. Still one of the country’s two major civilian employers, the post was the first to hire women, African Americans, and other minorities for positions in public life. Starved by two world wars and the Great Depression, confronted with the country’s increasingly anti-institutional mind-set, and struggling with its doubled mail volume, the post stumbled badly in the turbulent 1960s. Distracted by the ensuing modernization of its traditional services, however, it failed to transition from paper mail to email, which prescient observers saw as its logical next step. Now the post office is at a crossroads. Before deciding its future, Americans should understand what this grand yet overlooked institution has accomplished since 1775 and consider what it should and could contribute in the twenty-first century. Gallagher argues that now, more than ever before, the imperiled post office deserves this effort, because just as the founders anticipated, it created forward-looking, communication-oriented, idea-driven America.

Who's Got Mail?

Who's Got Mail? PDF Author: Linda Barrett Osborne
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647005574
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
A fascinating history of the U.S. Post Office for kids, from acclaimed author Linda Barrett Osborne “In America, one of the first things done in a new State is to have the mail come.” —Alexis de Toqueville, 1835 Who’s Got Mail? is an intriguing and fact-filled look at how the mail has been delivered in the United States since before the Constitution was even signed. In the United States, the spread of the postal service went hand in hand with the spread of democracy and transportation. As settlement spread west, communication became even more important to let distant residents feel that they were American; no part of the country was too far away, no village or farm too small to have access to the post. Moreover, the Post Office has always been a public service—it was not originally designed to make a profit or act like a business, but to deliver letters, medical supplies, packages ordered online, and all the things that Americans need at a reasonable cost. Over the centuries, it has also been one of the largest employers in the United States, particularly as a means for African Americans and women to secure stable, middle-class jobs. Full of eccentric characters, great stories, and technological achievements, this fun middle-grade narrative nonfiction from author Linda Barrett Osborne celebrates one of the oldest and strongest institutions, and is a true testament to the spirit of American democracy.

Paper Trails

Paper Trails PDF Author: Cameron Blevins
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190053690
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
A groundbreaking history of how the US Post made the nineteenth-century American West. There were five times as many post offices in the United States in 1899 than there are McDonald's restaurants today. During an era of supposedly limited federal government, the United States operated the most expansive national postal system in the world. In this cutting-edge interpretation of the late nineteenth-century United States, Cameron Blevins argues that the US Post wove together two of the era's defining projects: western expansion and the growth of state power. Between the 1860s and the early 1900s, the western United States underwent a truly dramatic reorganization of people, land, capital, and resources. It had taken Anglo-Americans the better part of two hundred years to occupy the eastern half of the continent, yet they occupied the West within a single generation. As millions of settlers moved into the region, they relied on letters and newspapers, magazines and pamphlets, petitions and money orders to stay connected to the wider world. Paper Trails maps the spread of the US Post using a dataset of more than 100,000 post offices, revealing a new picture of the federal government in the West. The western postal network bore little resemblance to the civil service bureaucracies typically associated with government institutions. Instead, the US Post grafted public mail service onto private businesses, contracting with stagecoach companies to carry the mail and paying local merchants to distribute letters from their stores. These arrangements allowed the US Post to rapidly spin out a vast and ephemeral web of postal infrastructure to thousands of distant places. The postal network's sprawling geography and localized operations forces a reconsideration of the American state, its history, and the ways in which it exercised power.

Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States

Deliverance Mary Fields, First African American Woman Star Route Mail Carrier in the United States PDF Author: Miantae Metcalf McConnell
Publisher: HUZZAH PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0997877006
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description
1885-1914. Mary Fields, a fifty-three-year old second-generation slave, emancipated and residing in Toledo, receives news of her friend's impending death. Remedies packed in her satchel, Mary rushes to board the Northern Pacific. She arrives in the Montana wilderness to find Mother Mary Amadeus lying on frozen earth in a broken-down cabin. Certain that the cloister of frostbit Ursuline nuns and their students, Indian girls rescued from nearby reservations, will not survive without assistance, Mary decides to stay.She builds a hennery, makes repairs to living quarters, cares for stock, and treks into the mountains to provide food. Brushes with death do not deter her. Mary drives a horse and wagon through perilous terrain and blizzards to improve the lives of missionaries, homesteaders and Indians and, in the process, her own.After weathering wolf attacks, wagon crashes and treacherous conspiracies by scoundrels, local politicians and the state's first Catholic bishop, Mary Fields creates another daring plan. An avid patriot, she is determined to register for the vote. The price is high. Will she manifest her personal vision of independence?MCCONNELL'S RESEARCH enabled USPS to verify Mary Fields as the first African American woman star route mail carrier in the U.S. A chronicle of Fields' life in Montana from 1885 until her death in 1914, the narrative examines women rights, bootleg politics, Montana's turn-of-the-century transition from territory to state and its scandalous 1914 woman suffrage election.SHORT-LISTED 2015 LARAMIE AWARDMcConnell fashioned a historical narrative marrying prose and poetry, fact with creative writing. With the discerning eye of a photographer, the deft hand of a historian, and the literary heart of a poet, the life of Mary Fields, legendary black woman of Montana, rises off the page into living history. If the reader has any interest in Mary Fields, aka Stagecoach Mary, Deliverance is the one book you must read.--Cowboy Mike Searles, Author, Professor of History, Augusta University, GA.A great story and history of Mary Fields, an important back westerner. A must read for youths and adults. --Bruce A. Glasrud, Author, Professor, California State University.