Guess who's birthday it is?! The United States Postal Service! 🎂🎉

In an increasingly modernizing world, there's an item in our culture that hasn't changed since its inception about 200 years ago. It's the postage stamp. NOW, before you roll your eyes and move on to other content, you just might get a little excited over the way the postage USED to be utilized.

📬 This tidbit is actually a bit funny. Prior to the mid-1800's, nearly all letters were sent collect. The receiver of the mail would have to go to a post office and see if there was anything there for them. Many times the local post office would have to put advertisements in local newspapers so that people would know that they had mail to retrieve.

🚩 Unfortunately, quite a lot of people didn't want to pay to collect their letters! So, the USPS started off a bit cumbersome (and well, it became expensive for them too).

So, in 1847 the postage stamp arrived in the U.S. and we never turned back! For the initial decades, stamps almost entirely depicted heads of government, much like coins. 1893 became the first year of commemorative stamps, the first ones tied to the World's Fair in Chicago.

🖼 It's rather neat, really, as stamps are a timeline of our history and culture. Curious about the different ways our mail has been transported over these 200 years?! Check out some old photos (PS - I'm a little partial to the furry mail carrier 😃): https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/galleries/gallery-unusual.htm

Source: The Atlantic
📸: The Expert Editor