Terre Haute "Postman" Wagon Model

The National Postal Museum's "Object of the Month" is the Terre Haute "Postman" Wagon Model.

According to a write-up that appeared in the museum's electronic newsletter, The Postmark,"The Postman" is one of five quarter-sized specimen rural delivery wagons built for the Post Office Department by the Terre Haute Carriage and Wagon Company in the late nineteenth century."

The Department used these wagons to help drum up Congressional support for a Rural Free Delivery (RFD) service.

This fully operational working model, "the Postman," has the sliding doors and windows of the finished product. The four-wheeled wagon was designed to be used with either one or two horses, was equipped with sliding doors and "storm proof" windows, built-in drawers for holding postal supplies and pigeonholes for mail. The wagons, made from hickory and ash with poplar panels, were hand painted.

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