Vintage RFD Mail Wagon To Be Displayed

A late 19th-century U.S. Mail wagon will be on display at the American Philatelic Society StampShow 2008 being held August 14-17 in Hartford, Connecticut.

According to an APS press release, the wagon dates from approximately 1896 and is the same design of a one-horse wagon that was pictured in 1996 on a 32-cent stamp commemorating the centennial of Rural Free Delivery service in the United States.

Rural Free Delivery service began in 1896 as an experiment in West Virginia, extending the home mail delivery that had become common in cities and towns for the first time to farmers and others living in the countryside. Prior to RFD, those living in rural areas would travel, perhaps once a week and often several miles over abysmal roads, to their local post office to send and receive their mail.

To read the entire press release, click here.

To find out more about StampShow 2008 August 14-17 in Hartford, click here.