USPS to sponsor postal history awards

Starting in 2007, the United States Postal Service will sponsor the Rita Lloyd Moroney Awards for scholarship on the postal history of the United States.

Cash prizes are being given to encourage scholarship on the history of the American postal system and to raise awareness about the significance of the postal system in American life.

The award is named after Rita Lloyd Moroney who conducted historical research for the Postmaster General in 1962. She then served as the first official historian of the U.S. Postal Service from 1973 to 1991.

Submissions ned to have been published, accepted (in the case of theses and dissertations), or presented (in the case of conference papers), in a three-year period prior to the application deadline

Submissions for the 2007 prize must be postmarked by December 1, 2006. No late entries will be accepted. For more information, click here.

(Shown above is the first United States postage stamp which was issued in 1847. On it is the first Postmaster General appointed under the Continental Congress - Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was appointed on July 26, 1775. For more on the history of the Postal Service, click here.)