Sunday, February 8, 2009

railway mail service library

This cachet, from the collection of Jeffrey Shapiro, was issued in 1938 to commemorate the first National Air Mail Week, an effort by the postal system to encourage its users to send airmail letters. Site-specific cachets were issued all around the country. To learn more about this and other cachets, visit www.lingens.com/articles/shapiro/namw.shtml.

A photocopy of this cachet was among the information that came in the mail from Frank R. Scheer, head of the Railway Mail Service Library, which is dedicated to the history of postal distribution. Housed in a 1913 train station in Boyce, Virginia, the Library has an extensive collection of original materials and artifacts pertaining to the transportation and distribution of mail in the US and abroad. It sounds fascinating! Mr. Scheer included an invitation to drive down I-81 to visit the library and I hope to take him up on it. For more information: www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org. The site is a bit "clunky" but bear with it and you will find much of interest.