"Missile Mail" Slide Show

About.com reports, "On June 8, 1959, in a move a postal official heralded as "of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world," the Navy submarine U.S.S. Barbero fired a guided missile carrying 3,000 letters at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida.

"Before man reaches the moon," the official was quoted as saying, "mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles - missile mail."

National Postal Museum curator Nancy A. Pope reveals more about this Cold War era mail delivery experiment in a new slide show titled "Missile Mail".

According to Nancy, one of the ideas behind the experiment was to show the Russians that our missile system was so advanced that we even used them to deliver mail.

To watch the slide show, click here.