MARYLAND POSTAL HISTORY PROJECT
The Maryland Postal History Project is an on-going effort to document
and catalog the postal markings used in Maryland post offices, from
colonial times to the present. Maryland is a small state geographically,
easily traversed by highway in less than six hours from the Atlantic
Ocean beaches in the east to the Allegheny Mountains in the west.
However, it offers a challenging postal history record spanning nearly
three hundred years and two thousand local communities that is not yet
fully explored.
Please contact the state administrator if you have any information to
contribute to the postal history project or to the material presented in
the Introduction.
State administrator: Gordon Katz
Mailing address: 9924 Springfield Drive
Ellicott City MD 21042-4947
Email address:
gccats@verizon.net
i
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Thanks to each of the following individuals who have provided valuable assistance to this
project:
Gary Anderson
Robert Beasecker
Gary Carlson
Mike Ellingson
Art Hadley
Dick Laird
Larry McBride
Don Pearson
Alex Savakis
Patricia Stillwell Walker
Richard Winter
ii
INTRODUCTION TO MARYLAND AND ITS POSTAL HISTORY
The objectives of this introduction are two-fold:
a) To provide a general Maryland historical context within which to view its postal
history; and
b) To provide explanatory notes regarding the structure of the Maryland postal history
catalog.
It is presented in four sections as follows:
I.
MARYLAND HISTORICAL NOTES – The historical notes provide a
chronological sampling of events that have taken place in Maryland.
II.
POST OFFICES IN MARYLAND – This discussion outlines the development
of the network of post offices in Maryland from colonial times to the present.
III.
UNDERSTANDING THE POSTAL HISTORY CATALOG – This section is
a user’s guide that explains how the Maryland postal history catalog is structured.
IV.
SOURCES USED – A comprehensive list of the reference works consulted
during the development of this Introduction and the Maryland postal history
catalog.
iii
I. MARYLAND HISTORICAL NOTES
Founding through Declaration of Independence: 1634 to 1776
King Charles I of England granted the charter for the colony of Maryland to Cecilius (Cecil)
Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, in June 1632. His father, George Calvert, had been a
close friend and confidante of King Charles, who admired Calvert’s strict Catholicism and
conservative ideology. The elder Calvert, who had failed in an earlier colonial venture in
Newfoundland, persuaded the king to give him a new proprietorship in America. George
Calvert died before the grant was officially settled and it passed to Cecil. As a prudent
expression of gratitude, the Calverts named their colony for Charles’ wife, Queen Henrietta
Maria.
About one hundred twenty-five English settlers landed in the colony on March 25, 1634 at
an island in the Potomac River they called St. Clement’s Island, after Pope Saint Clement I,
patron saint of mariners. Within a few months the settlers had moved to the mainland and
erected the town of St. Mary’s City in what is now St. Mary’s County, which served as the
first colonial capital. Settlement of the colony progressed northward, generally following the
navigable waterways of the Chesapeake Bay and its many tributaries.
The “Act of Toleration” was enacted in 1649, establishing religious toleration for Christian
faiths as public policy in the colony. It was repealed in 1689 following the ascension of the
Protestants William III and Mary II to the British throne. That event cost the Calverts their
proprietorship of the colony, and ultimately led to the
relocation of the colonial capital from the Catholic
stronghold of St. Mary’s City to Anne Arundel Towne in
1694. Anne Arundel Towne was renamed Annapolis and
has served as the seat of government continuously since
that time.
Figure 1: The Maryland State Capitol
in Annapolis. This building has been in
continuous use by the Maryland legislature
since 1772.
William Parks began publishing the colony’s first
newspaper, the Maryland Gazette, in Annapolis in 1727.
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon surveyed the present
day border dividing Maryland from Pennsylvania and
Delaware between 1763 and 1767. Known as the “MasonDixon Line”, it was considered then as now the dividing
line between the northern and southern states. Life in
Southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore especially
emulated the plantation economy of the South.
The first public outburst of resistance to British rule in
Maryland occurred in 1765 in Fredericktown (now
Frederick) when the mostly German population violently protested the new taxes mandated
by the Stamp Act and the local court rejected their imposition. Protests elsewhere against
the Tea Act incited a mob to burn the British ship Peggy Stewart and her cargo of tea in the
Annapolis harbor on October 19, 1774. Four Marylanders joined fifty-two other prominent
iv
colonists on July 4, 1776 in the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
The Maryland Convention at Annapolis declared independence from Great Britain on July 6.
Post-colonial Era: The late 1700s and 1800s
Maryland became the seventh colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788 and
was granted statehood on September 22. The state’s population in the first decennial census
of 1790 was about 320,000. Residents in what are today the five most populous jurisdictions
– Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties –
numbered 100,000. The state ceded land along the Potomac River in Montgomery County
to the federal government in 1791 for the District of Columbia.
The importation of slaves for sale was banned in 1796. It was also the year that the City of
Baltimore, the hub of the state’s commerce, was incorporated. Construction of the National
Road began in 1811, and would eventually extend the existing private turnpikes between
Baltimore and Cumberland all the way to Vandalia, Illinois by 1839. On the morning of
September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key was moved to write the poem “The Defence of Fort
McHenry” after witnessing an all night bombardment of the fort by British warships that
failed to dislodge its defenders. The poem was later renamed “The Star Spangled Banner”
and adopted as the U.S. National Anthem in 1931.
Groundbreaking for the Chesapeake & Ohio (C & O) Canal took place on July 4, 1828 in
Georgetown. The first railroad station in the country was built in 1830 by the Baltimore &
Ohio Railroad at Mount Clare in Baltimore City. Both the Canal and Railroad progressed
westward, with the Railroad reaching Cumberland in 1842, eight years before the Canal
arrived there in 1850. Construction of the Canal terminated at Cumberland, overtaken by
the expansion of the railroad network to points far beyond. Operations on the canal ceased
in 1924 after it sustained severe flood damage. The waterway is now
a National Historic Park.
Figure 2: Antietam
National Cemetery
Maryland was a slave state, and its citizens were sharply divided by
the Civil War. The federal government acted to ensure that
Maryland did not secede from the Union and thus isolate the
District of Columbia in Southern territory. In 1861, Federal troops
occupied Annapolis and Baltimore and remained there throughout
the war. The writ of habeas corpus was suspended. Supporters of
secession in the Maryland General Assembly and throughout the
state were arrested and imprisoned. James Ryder Randall lamented
the “despot’s heel” of occupation by “Union scum” when he
penned his poem “Maryland, My Maryland” in 1861. It was adopted
as the official state song in 1939.
The state’s citizens witnessed numerous encounters between the Union and Confederate
armies, the bloodiest of which took place on September 17, 1862 at Antietam Creek, near
Sharpsburg in Washington County. Nearly four thousand men died in a single day and
another seventeen thousand were wounded. An act of the Maryland legislature emancipated
all slaves in the state on November 1, 1864.
v
The B & O Railroad opened the Deer Park Hotel in the mountains of Garrett County near
Oakland on July 4, 1873, one of five such hostelries erected by the Railroad. It was a
popular retreat for the rich and famous, including two U.S. Presidents. Business dropped
off after 1900 and the hotel eventually closed in the 1930s. A new influx of vacationers
began coming to the County following the damming of Deep Creek Lake in 1923, and the
lake and surrounding area is now a popular boating and skiing destination.
The first hotel built in the Atlantic Ocean beach resort of Ocean City opened on July 4,
1875, boasting four hundred rooms. On summer weekends today, the population of Ocean
City swells to 300,000 or more, temporarily making it the second most populous city in the
state. Johns Hopkins University opened on October 3, 1876 in Baltimore; its health care
counterpart, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, was dedicated on May 7, 1889. Maryland and
Virginia watermen battled over access to oyster beds in the Chesapeake Bay during the
“Oyster Wars” of 1888 – 1889.
Modern Times: The 20th Century
The census of 1900 counted 1.2 million people residing in Maryland, of which 700,000 lived
in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties.
Laws banning child labor under the age of twelve, enacting workmen’s compensation relief,
and making school attendance compulsory were all passed in 1902. The 1904 legislative
session brought the enactment of a “Jim Crow” public accommodations law. Much of
Baltimore’s business district was destroyed in a fire on February 7 – 8, 1904. The first
bookmobile service in the country, using a horse-drawn coach, was established in 1907 in
Washington County.
Camp Meade, one of sixteen cantonments for World War I draftees, was erected in Anne
Arundel County near Odenton in 1917. Today, Fort Meade is the home of a number of
military and intelligence services as diverse as the National Security Agency and the U.S.
Army Field Band. The first testing center for the U.S. Army was also established in 1917 at
Aberdeen Proving Ground on sixty-nine thousand acres of farmland and swamp in Harford
County. Nearly three thousand County residents and twelve thousand farm animals had to
be relocated to make way for the center.
Maryland’s female citizens were permitted to vote for the first
time in elections held on November 2, 1920. Commercial radio
broadcasts from Baltimore began in 1922. In 1925, both the
Maryland and Virginia legislatures passed laws protecting the blue
crab, the signature state delicacy, whose population had declined
sharply due to over-harvesting.
The Great Depression that began in 1929 cut the state’s per capita
income nearly in half by 1933. Incomes would not return to preFigure 3: The blue crab,
Maryland State Crustacean
Depression levels until after World War II. Construction of the
planned community of Greenbelt, a New Deal project in Prince Georges County featuring
cooperative housing and stores for low to middle income families, began in 1935. A state
income tax was imposed in 1937.
vi
The first Liberty Ship, the Patrick Henry, was launched at Baltimore’s Bethlehem-Fairfield
Shipyard on September 27, 1941, less than three months before the Japanese attack on the
U.S. Navy fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7. The Fairfield Shipyard
built three hundred eighty-four of these workhorse ships, employing nearly forty-five
thousand workers at the peak of production. Andrews Field (now Andrews Air Force Base)
was constructed in 1942 in Prince Georges County along with the Naval Medical Center in
Bethesda. A “work or fight” law was enacted in 1943, requiring “every able-bodied, sane
male person between the ages of 16 and 60” residing in certain counties to join the armed
services or actively take up an occupation.
Commercial television stations in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. began broadcasting in
1947. A state sales tax was implemented effective July 1 of that year. Slot machines were
legalized in Southern Maryland in 1949. Their rapid proliferation quickly earned the region
the nickname “Little Vegas”.
Figure 4: Chesapeake Bay Bridge, looking east
toward Kent Island
President Truman dedicated Friendship International
Airport, now BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport, on
June 24, 1950. Scheduled air service commenced
one month later. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a 4.3
mile span from Sandy Point in Anne Arundel
County on the Bay’s Western Shore to Kent Island
on its Eastern Shore, opened on July 31, 1952. The
bridge is the gateway for millions of summer
vacationers anxious to “Reach the Beach” in Ocean
City and other coastal resorts.
The St. Louis Browns baseball team moved to Baltimore in 1954 and changed its name to
the Baltimore Orioles. The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel opened on November 30, 1957,
allowing travelers to bypass the city in return for a modest toll. On December 28, 1958, the
Baltimore Colts football team won the National Football League championship, defeating
the New York Giants 23 – 17 in “The Greatest Game Ever Played”.
Legislation mandating a phase-out of slot machines by July 1, 1968 was enacted in 1963,
following years of complaints from Southern Marylanders that gambling was ruining the
local economy and destroying families. On June 11 of the same year, race riots broke out in
the town of Cambridge on the Eastern Shore. National Guard troops were ordered in and
remained on duty there until May 1965. Racial tensions spilled over into rioting once again
in Cambridge in July 1967.
The planned community of Columbia, announced by shopping center developer James
Rouse in 1963, opened on June 21, 1967. Nearly 100,000 people now reside in Columbia,
which sprawls over fourteen thousand acres of former farmland in Howard County. The
assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968 sparked several days of rioting in
Baltimore City. Five thousand soldiers from Fort Bragg joined thousands of Maryland
National Guard troops and State Police officers in quelling the violence.
vii
Protests against the war in Viet Nam flared at the University of Maryland in College Park in
the spring of 1970. On May 15, 1972, Governor George Wallace of Alabama was shot and
wounded in the Laurel Shopping Center parking lot following a presidential campaign
appearance. Spiro Agnew, U.S. Vice President and former Baltimore County Executive and
Governor of Maryland, resigned his office in 1973 after being indicted on charges of tax
evasion. His successor as County Executive, Dale Anderson, was convicted in 1974 on
charges of extortion, conspiracy and tax evasion. Agnew’s successor as Governor, Marvin
Mandel, was convicted in 1977 of mail fraud and racketeering (later overturned).
The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Calvert County began operating in May 1975.
Camp David, the presidential retreat located near Thurmont in Frederick County, was the
site of secret negotiations among President Jimmy Carter, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and
Menachem Begin of Israel for thirteen days in September 1978. The agreements forged
between Egypt and Israel became known as the “Camp David Accords”.
“Harborplace”, which opened on July 2, 1980, was another project by Columbia developer
Rouse that replaced decaying buildings along Baltimore’s Inner Harbor waterfront with a
modern shopping and eating complex. On
the night of March 29, 1984 a convoy of
moving vans left the Baltimore Colts’ training
facility in Owings Mills and moved the team
to Indianapolis. The city regained an NFL
franchise for the 1996 season when the
Browns moved there from Cleveland and
renamed themselves the Baltimore Ravens.
The first of several Chesapeake Bay
Agreements was signed on December 9,
1983. Subsequent Agreements were executed
in December 1987, September 1993 and June
Figure 5: A view of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, showing
2000. Signatories to the Agreements included the Pratt Street Pavilion at Harborplace.
the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania and
Virginia, along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. The purpose of the Agreements was to address the deteriorating condition of the
Bay and take the necessary steps to restore and protect the Bay’s resources.
Recent Events and Beyond: The 21st Century
The 2000 census reported a state population of 5.3 million with 3.6 million people living in
Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties.
Sixty Marylanders died in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 against the World
Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in northern Virginia. Rumors swirled during
the day that an attack against Baltimore’s own World Trade Center was imminent. After the
building was evacuated, the rumors proved to be false.
Legislation introduced in 2003 and again in 2004 sanctioning the installation of slot
machines at selected horse racing tracks in Maryland was defeated. In 2005, the U.S.
Defense Department announced a new wave of military base relocations and closings
viii
(BRAC). Military facilities in Maryland, including Aberdeen Proving Ground, Fort Meade,
the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and Andrews Air Force Base, are expected
to gain more than nine thousand jobs once BRAC 2005 is fully implemented. The Maryland
General Assembly and the Annapolis City Council passed resolutions in 2007 apologizing
for the historical role that the state and the city played in perpetuating the institution of
slavery.
THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL NOTES WILL BE UPDATED PERIODICALLY.
ix
II. POST OFFICES IN MARYLAND
British Colonial Period (1634 to 1775)
The conveyance of correspondence in early colonial times was made through private
arrangements between the sender and a third party, usually the captain of a ship sailing for a
port that was at or near the letter’s destination. Inland roads were nonexistent. Delivery of
a letter to the intended recipient was far from certain. No post offices or organized postal
system existed until 1639 when the Massachusetts colony designated a tavern in Boston as
the central point for receiving and dispatching mail between the colony and England.
The first inter-colonial post began operation on January 1, 1673, running between Boston
and New York. The earliest mention of mail delivery to Maryland from the northern
colonies is in July 1683, when a weekly post was established in Philadelphia. The cost to
send a letter to the Maryland colony via this post was set at six pence.
King William III of England granted Thomas Neale a patent in 1692 to operate a postal
service in the colonies. In 1695, a proposition was presented to the Maryland House of
Delegates by the royal court to join the British colonial post; however, the proposition seems
not to have been considered. Neale’s deputy postmaster general in the colonies, Andrew
Hamilton, reported in 1699 that extending the colonial post into Maryland and Virginia was
not worth the effort because it would involve the exchange of fewer than a hundred letters a
year between the northern and southern colonies.
Figure 1: US stamp commemorating the colonial
postrider
Neale’s patent was repurchased by the Crown in 1707
and the postal service in the colonies was folded into
the British Post Office by an act of Parliament in
1711. The British colonial post was eventually
extended into Maryland and Virginia in 1717.
Postmasters were appointed and routine mail
schedules established. By 1727, postriders plied
various mail routes on both sides of the Chesapeake
Bay. Elk Ridge Landing in Anne Arundel County
(now Elkridge in Howard County) was an important
stop on the north-south post road running from
Maine to Virginia.
The colonists’ increasing resistance to British rule fueled a distrust of the British colonial
post, leading William Goddard of Baltimore to devise an alternative postal system.
Goddard, a former postmaster and printer of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser,
announced in the Journal on July 2, 1774 that his plan for a new service extending throughout
the colonies had the support of the Friends of Freedom. The Second Continental Congress
meeting in Philadelphia in 1775 generally adopted Goddard’s plan, but on July 26 chose
Benjamin Franklin to be Postmaster General and to establish the rival colonial post. The
colonists ceased using the British colonial post and actively disrupted its services, effectively
forcing it to discontinue operations on December 25, 1775.
x
Postal markings from the British colonial period are known from ten Maryland towns. The
earliest marking reported is from Annapolis, a simple straight line hand stamp reading
“Ann.”, on a folded letter datelined 1760. All markings from this period are rare.
American Congress and Confederation Period (1775 – 1788)
The first post office established by the Provincial Congress of Maryland was at Annapolis on
December 5, 1775. Fourteen post offices were operating by the time Maryland was granted
statehood on September 22, 1788. Postal markings from this period are scarce to very
scarce. All of the offices shown below except for Harford remain in operation today.
Figure 2: The fourteen post offices operating when Maryland became the seventh state
Post office
Annapolis
Baltimore
Bladensburg
Charlestown
Chester Mills
Chestertown
Fredericktown
Georgetown
Georgetown Cross Roads
Harford
Head of Elk
Susquehannah
Talbot Court House
Upper Marlborough
County
Anne Arundel
Baltimore
Prince Georges
Cecil
Queen Anne’s
Kent
Frederick
Montgomery
Kent
Harford
Cecil
Harford
Talbot
Prince Georges
Notes
now Centreville
now Frederick
now in District of Columbia
now Galena
discontinued 1832
now Elkton
now Havre de Grace
now Easton
now Upper Marlboro
Statehood Period (1788 – present)
Maryland’s network of post offices expanded rapidly after statehood, growing to ninety
offices by 1808. The expansion continued throughout the 19th century, peaking at more than
thirteen hundred offices across the state as of November 22, 1899, not counting the dozens
of postal stations that had been established throughout Baltimore City. With about 1.2
million residents, there was an average of one post office for every nine hundred people.
It wasn’t long, however, before the number of offices began to decline. The successful
introduction of rural free delivery (RFD) service in Carroll County in October 1896
eventually convinced postal authorities to close fifty-six offices in or near the county on a
single day, December 19, 1899. As RFD service spread throughout the state, the number
continued to decline sharply, dropping below one thousand active offices by 1910.
US Postal Service efforts to streamline and centralize operations have reduced the number
of post offices operating in Maryland to around five hundred forty in 2007. In addition, the
proliferation of competing services for shipping packages, the explosive growth of electronic
messaging, and the ability to purchase postage on-line and at outlets other than a post office
xi
have also contributed to the decline. On average today, there is one post office for every ten
thousand Maryland residents. Viewed another way, the number of post offices serving 5.3
million residents in 2007 is about the same as the number of offices that served about
800,000 residents in 1870.
Chart I graphically illustrates the changes that have occurred. The rapid growth of the
network during the 19th century followed by its steady decline during the 20th century is easily
seen, with the number of discontinued post offices outstripping the number of active post
offices beginning in the first two decades of the 20th century.
Chart I: Active and Discontinued Post Offices in Maryland from 1780 – 2000
MARYLAND - ACTIVE AND DISCONTINUED POST OFFICES
2000
1500
Active POs
Cumul Disc POs
1000
500
YEAR
xii
2000
1980
1960
1940
1920
1900
1880
1860
1840
1820
1800
0
1780
NUMBER OF POST OFFICES
2500
The highly centralized mail handling operations in Maryland today means that nearly all mail
deposited in a mailbox or in a mail slot at a local post office will be postmarked in one of the
eight postal facilities listed in the table below, depending on where and when it is mailed:
Facility
Location
Baltimore P&DC
Baltimore City
Cumberland Main Post Office
Cumberland
Eastern Shore P&DF
Easton
Easton
Easton
Frederick P&DF
Frederick
Southern MD P&DC
Capitol Heights
Suburban MD P&DC
Gaithersburg
Waldorf DDU
Waldorf
Service area
Baltimore City; Baltimore, Harford
and Cecil Counties; parts of Anne
Arundel, Carroll and Howard
Counties
Allegany and Garrett Counties
Kent, Queen Anne’s, Caroline,
Dorchester, Worcester, Somerset,
Talbot and Wicomico Counties
Same as above
Frederick
and
Washington
Counties; parts of Carroll and
Howard Counties; weekend mail
from Allegany and Garrett
Counties
Parts of Prince Georges, Anne
Arundel, Howard, Charles, Calvert
and Saint Mary’s Counties
Montgomery County; parts of
Prince Georges County
Parts of Charles, Calvert and Saint
Mary’s Counties
The facility name in the postmark may or may not include the facility designation. For
example, the Baltimore P&DC postmark simply reads “Baltimore MD”. The short list
above may get even shorter in the future depending on the outcome of an evaluation by the
Postal Service of the feasibility of consolidating the operations of the Easton and Waldorf
facilities into one or more of the six remaining facilities.
Discontinued post offices
Chart I shows that more than two thousand post offices that once operated in Maryland are
now closed, about half of which closed before the end of the 19th century. Some of these
offices opened and closed multiple times before ceasing operation entirely. Some were
short-lived; the post office at Aix in Prince Georges County operated for only eight months
in 1914 – 1915. Others served the local community for many years; the Uniontown post
office in Carroll County was established in 1815 and remained active until 1998, first as an
independent office, and then as a rural station of the Westminster post office.
A discussion of discontinued post offices naturally leads to the question, “How hard is it to
find postal history from these offices?” Not surprisingly, the short answer is “It depends”.
The supply of material from discontinued Maryland post offices ranges from plentiful to
rarely if ever seen. Many factors influence the retention and survival of covers and cards,
including attrition over time and collector demand, causing supply to be rather uneven and
not altogether linked to a particular post office’s longevity. The majority of the discontinued
xiii
offices were located in rural areas where mail volume was low, thus placing an inherent
limitation on the potential supply of material in the marketplace today.
La Posta Publications has published a series of postal history books that list operating dates
of all U.S. post offices along with a “scarcity index” for each. The index uses a ten point
scale of 0 to 9, where an index value of “0” is assigned to post offices currently operating.
Progressively higher values are assigned to discontinued post offices denoting increasing
degrees of perceived scarcity. The scarcity index values assigned to each state’s post offices
were developed based on input from dealers and collectors familiar with that state’s postal
history.
The scarcity index value is best thought of as a quantification of the relative difficulty of
finding any postmark from a given post office. The index value of “0” assigned to operating
post offices means that it should be relatively easy to obtain an example of a postmark from
those offices. Postmarks from discontinued post offices with index values of 1 to 3 are
considered common to somewhat scarce; with index values in the range of 4 to 6, scarce to
very scarce; and with index values of 7 to 9, extremely scarce to rare or unknown.
Chart II plots the average scarcity index for the discontinued post offices of each Maryland
County and Baltimore City, arranged from lowest to highest, along with the number of
discontinued offices. The overall average scarcity index for all Maryland discontinued
offices is 4.1, meaning that in general, postmarks from these offices are relatively hard to
find.
Chart II: Discontinued post offices and relative scarcity by county
6.00
250
5.00
200
4.00
150
3.00
100
2.00
50
1.00
-
0
COUNTY
DISC POs
SCARCITY INDEX
xiv
A V ERA G E RELA T IV E
S C A RC IT Y IN D EX
300
Ba
l
Pr tim o
in c re
e G Ci
e o ty
r
C a ge s
l
Ho ve rt
D w
or a r
ch d
e
G ster
ar
C re
W h ar tt
ic o le s
m
An B al t ic o
n e im
Ar o re
u
Ca nd e
ro l
C a li ne
W rr
o
Sa or c e l l
in t ste
W M r
a a
M sh in r y 's
o n gt
t g on
o
So m er
me y
Ha r set
r fo
T a rd
Fr l b
ed o t
e ri
c
Q
ue C k
en ec
A n il
Al n e
le g s
an
Ke y
nt
POST OFFIC ES
MARYLAND - DISCONTINUED POST OFFICES AND RELATIVE SCARCITY BY
COUNTY
Summary
Approximately two thousand Maryland communities have had a local post office in the postcolonial period since the first office opened in Annapolis in December 1775. Some larger
communities had or have more than one, with local branches or stations supporting the
main office. A complete collection featuring one example from each community’s post
office, including where applicable each different name, period of operation, movement
between counties, temporary special event stations, and any branches or stations, would
number somewhere around forty-five hundred to five thousand items. Expanding that
collection to include all of the different postmarks and cancellations used over time by each
of those facilities would likely push that number well above twenty-five thousand items.
The Maryland county postal history catalogs document the pursuit of these postal history
artifacts. Assembling a complete collection is unlikely; however, the search rewards the
collector with a broader appreciation of Maryland’s communities and their histories even
without encountering a relic from their past.
xv
III. UNDERSTANDING THE POSTAL HISTORY CATALOG
The Maryland Postal History Catalog is presented by county. The following notes explain
what information can be found in the county catalogs and how it is structured.
DATA ELEMENTS
Maryland is organized into twenty-three counties plus the City of Baltimore, which has been
a separate jurisdiction since 1851. County boundaries have been fixed since 1918 when the
final demarcation of Baltimore City’s borders was established.
The following data are included for each county post office:
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
ƒ
Dates of operation
All known postal markings with early and late dates of reported use
Illustrations of all known postal markings where available
Description of each marking’s distinguishing design elements
A sample listing for the Annapolis Junction post office is displayed below, which shows how
the data are presented within the catalogs.
Annapolis Junction
Dates of operation
1844 Aug 26 1871 Nov 29
1871 Nov 29 1919 Oct 7
1919 Oct 7
1921 Sep 29
1921 Sep 29
HAND CANCELS
Notes
Est. in Anne Arundel County; moved to Howard County
Howard County; moved to Anne Arundel County
Anne Arundel County; moved to Howard County
Howard County
DESCRIPTION
4-bar cancel type F/1 (var. 1)
1950 Feb 7
Dial: 32 mm, no comma after PO,
lettering in upper half of dial
Cancel: 4 bars, left ends curved
(Willett-Thompson Collection)
EARLY
USE
LATE
USE
1950 Feb 7
Two separate tables are presented for each post office. The first two columns of the table
directly underneath the post office name display the dates during which the post office
operated. A blank cell in the second column means that the office is currently operating.
Many post offices have multiple start and end dates, reflective of changes that have occurred
over time. In some instances, the periods of operation are continuous; for others, there are
breaks when the post office was closed and later reopened. Explanatory notes regarding all
such changes are provided in the third column. In this example, there are four distinct,
continuous periods of operation for the Annapolis Junction post office. The notes explain
xvi
that the office was originally established in Anne Arundel County in 1844, moved to Howard
County in 1871, moved back to Anne Arundel County in 1919, and moved once again to
Howard County in 1921, where it remains an active post office today. Other information
that may be found in the Notes column include name changes, reclassifications, and the post
office from where a community received its mail service after its own post office was closed.
The second table beneath the post office name heading lists the known postal markings
from that office. An illustration is provided if available, in approximate actual size unless
noted otherwise, along with descriptive information and reported early and late dates of use
for each marking. The example shown here is a 4-bar hand cancel applied at Annapolis
Junction on February 7, 1950. No other uses of this particular marking have been reported
yet, thus there is no entry in the “Late Use” column. Attribution for the source of the
illustration is given where required or desired.
Please see the section “Postal Markings” that follows for additional information on the
presentation of postal markings in the postal history catalogs.
Illustrations
Cancel illustrations feature markings from actual covers or cards when available. This
presentation has been chosen in order to provide the user with an example of how a given
cancel may actually appear when it is encountered. The descriptive information provided
along with the illustration should allow most if not all cancels to be positively identified.
Colors
If no color is specified in the “Description” column of the postal markings table, the
marking is only known in black. If the marking is known only in a color or colors other than
black, those colors are listed. For a marking that has been reported in both black and one or
more other colors, all of the colors including black are listed.
GENERAL ORGANIZATION
Post offices are listed alphabetically. Some post offices have changed names over time.
Each name by which an office is known or is reported to have operated is listed.
Occasionally, town names on postmarking devices are misspelled or differ from the official
spelling used by the Postal Service. Listings are included for these alternate spellings that
point to the correct town name. Listings have also been provided for town abbreviations
used in postmarks from which the full town name may not be obvious.
A community’s postal history is intrinsically linked to, and often reflects, its local history. As
a community evolves, so too does its postal history. With that historical linkage in mind,
each community’s postal history is presented intact.
Postal markings, therefore, are
arranged chronologically under the current name of the community’s post office or the last
name under which it operated, regardless of previous changes in name or spelling. There are
listings for all of the obsolete names and alternate spellings that point the user to the
consolidated postal history. For example, the community and post office known today as
“Jessup” has also been called “Pierceland”, “Hooversville”, “Jessup’s Cut”, “Jessup’s” and
xvii
“Jessups”. All of the obsolete names are listed and direct the user to “Jessup”, at which the
complete history of the postal markings associated with that community can be found.
TERMINOLOGY
The standard terminology of the postal history hobby is used throughout the Maryland
postal history catalog. The identification of postmark and cancellation types follows the type
charts of published studies, unless no such study is known. Varieties within a postmark or
cancellation type are noted as “(var. 1)”, “(var. 2)”, etc. Acronyms have been avoided unless
in common usage outside of the postal history hobby (e.g., “RFD” for “Rural Free
Delivery”). Descriptions of key design elements have been provided to assist with
differentiating similar postal markings.
The postmark types assigned by D. Homer Kendall in his book Maryland Postal History are
noted where applicable as “Kendall type”. Unlike other type charts, the Kendall types are
specific to markings recorded from Maryland post offices and do not have universal
application. Maryland postal historians commonly refer to the Kendall types, thus
necessitating their inclusion here.
Please refer to Section IV “Sources Used” for a complete list of the reference books
consulted.
POSTAL MARKINGS
Postal markings for each community are grouped in the categories and sequence listed
below. Not all categories apply to every community’s post office. The postal markings
within each category are listed chronologically by the earliest date of use reported.
Illustrations are provided where available.
ƒ
Hand cancels and markings – Hand cancels are postmarks and/or cancellations
applied by hand-held devices or in manuscript and are the typical historical postal
markings found for most post offices. They are seldom encountered in the mail
today unless requested by the sender at a postal counter.
ƒ
Machine cancels and markings – At least two hundred thirty-five post offices in
Maryland are known to have used mail cancelling machines for some period of time.
Equipment from more than thirteen different manufacturers was eventually
deployed throughout the state, beginning as early as 1876 in Baltimore. With the
transition to centralized processing at large facilities equipped with high-speed
sorting and cancelling machines, most if not all of the cancelling machines installed
at local post offices are no longer in service.
ƒ
Received markings – Some post offices used a separate postal marking to
document their receipt of incoming mail. The markings include the word
“Received” or an abbreviation such as “Rec’d” as one of the design elements. The
received markings were not supposed to be used as cancellers, but occasional uses as
such can be found. Received markings are no longer in use.
xviii
ƒ
Special purpose markings – Post offices often use different marking devices when
conducting business other than the routine processing of items placed in the mail.
Among these services are issuing postal money orders, processing of “General
Delivery” mail, and handling of registered mail. The special purpose markings
contain wording that specifies the nature of the service provided, such as “Reg. Sec.”
(Registry Section) for registered mail. As with received markings, special purpose
markings are not to be used as cancellers.
ƒ
Rural free delivery (RFD) cancels – Mail carriers servicing RFD routes in the early
1900s used hand held devices or manuscript markings to postmark mail picked up
on their routes. The hand cancels typically show the name of the post office out of
which the rural carrier operated. Manuscript markings vary widely, ranging from a
simple scribble to cancel the stamp(s) to more elaborate markings showing date, post
office and RFD route number.
Most manuscript RFD markings are what are called “down the line” markings,
meaning the marking was applied by the carrier to mail picked up at one residence
that was addressed to a residence further along the route. The carrier cancelled the
stamp and delivered the mail without bringing it back to the post office. In the years
immediately following the implementation of RFD service, it was not unusual for
such items to be addressed to a town where the post office had been closed, a RFD
route having replaced the town’s local post office. “Down the line” RFD markings
addressed in this manner are shown under the discontinued post office. Those
addressed to an operating post office and RFD route number are shown under the
operating post office.
ƒ
Named, lettered and numbered branches and stations – Larger towns and cities
often established branches or stations of the main post office for their patrons’
convenience. In addition, formerly independent post offices were sometimes
reclassified as branches or stations of larger nearby offices. The change was
generally made to consolidate services and cut costs. Reclassification also occurred
as the result of a neighboring jurisdiction annexing the community, as happened
twice to post offices in Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County when the
Baltimore City borders were redrawn. Many branches and stations were simply
assigned a letter or number, e.g. “Station A” or “Branch 1”; others were given names
or retained the names under which they had previously operated.
Please see the section entitled “Post Offices That Operated in More Than One
County” for additional information.
ƒ
Station agent markings – Station agent markings were applied at the local railroad
station using a hand stamp intended to validate train tickets rather than to postmark
the mail. In many of the small towns from which these markings are seen it’s likely
that the station ticket agent was also the town’s postmaster, and that the post office
and railroad station were located in the same building or in close proximity to each
xix
other. The ticket dater was employed to postmark the mail either because it was
handy or because the postmaster had not purchased a separate postmarking device.
ƒ
Transfer clerk markings – Train stations in Baltimore and Cumberland housed
postal facilities that were part of the Railway Mail Service, which operated the
railroad post office (RPO) mail cars. The postal clerks in these facilities were
responsible for the efficient transfer of mailbags between mail trains. The clerks also
postmarked mail that was handed in or dropped in a mailbox at the station. The
postmarks include the words “Transfer Clerk” or “Transfer Office”, usually
abbreviated in some fashion.
ƒ
Transit markings – Transit markings were required between about 1879 and 1913
to evidence receipt of mail pieces by distribution or separating post offices before
the mail was forwarded on to its final destination. The markings were not used
consistently. Specific postmarks for this purpose that include the word “Transit” are
known only from Baltimore and Princess Anne.
ƒ
Streetcar post offices – Five streetcar lines in Baltimore City operated mobile post
offices aboard the trolleys at various times between 1895 and 1929.
ƒ
Special events stations – A temporary postal station is sometimes set up at a local
event to provide special cancellations commemorating the event. Envelopes or
cards with event cachets may also be available at the postal station.
ƒ
Other – Postmarks that do not fit into one of the categories above are listed and
described as “Other”.
POST OFFICES THAT OPERATED IN MORE THAN ONE COUNTY
One of the challenges of reporting postal history by county is that some post offices
have operated within the borders of different counties. There are three different
scenarios in which movement between counties has occurred:
ƒ
The post office moved to a different physical location within a community that
happened to cross a county border.
ƒ
A new county was formed that included the community where the post office
was already in operation.
ƒ
The community was annexed by a neighboring jurisdiction.
One example neatly illustrates the first two scenarios. The town of Ellicott’s Mills (now
Ellicott City) grew up around the Ellicott brothers’ grain milling operations on the east
bank of the Patapsco River in Baltimore County, where the town’s post office was
established in 1797. The post office relocated west just across the river to neighboring
Anne Arundel County in 1837, the same year that the Ellicotts lost their businesses
during a national financial panic. There may have been some connection between the
xx
two events; more likely, the office was simply moved to a location that was more
convenient for the businesses and residences that had developed west of the river along
the National Road. The town of Ellicott’s Mills and its post office subsequently became
part of Howard County when it was formed from Anne Arundel County in 1851.
In instances such as the one described above, the community’s entire postal history is
presented in the county in which its post office is presently located or the last county in
which its post office operated. For Ellicott’s Mills, and later Ellicott City, the postal
history from periods when its post office operated in Baltimore, Anne Arundel and
Howard Counties is all shown in the Howard County catalog. Listings in the Baltimore
and Anne Arundel County catalogs refer the user to Howard County where the complete
postal history can be found. The introductory notes for each county include a summary
of the post offices that are listed elsewhere. While this presentation may not be entirely
satisfactory to county postal history collectors, it is necessary in order to avoid
fragmenting a community’s postal history.
POST OFFICES THAT WERE MERGED
There are a handful of examples in Maryland of two post offices being “merged” rather
than one or the other being closed outright. The outcome was in fact the same, in that
there was one “surviving” physical location; however, both names survived and were
joined to form a new name for the facility (e.g. the Lutherville-Timonium post office in
Baltimore County). It’s likely that these mergers were the result of a political
compromise reached by the Postal Service to overcome local opposition to a proposed
closure. The new hyphenated name doesn’t describe any community per se; it is merely a
locative name used by the Postal Service for the facility that remained in operation.
Post offices that were merged have three separate listings; one for each of the original
post offices that end as of the merger date and a separate listing for the merged
operation beginning with the merger date. Related postal markings are shown under
each of the three listings.
PRIVATELY APPLIED POSTMARKS & CANCELLATIONS
Privately applied postmarks and cancellations inscribed with the name of a Maryland
post office or town are beyond the scope of the county postal history catalogs. These
markings, which are applied by individuals and/or businesses rather than at a postal
facility, generally fall into one of the following four categories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Meter stamps and markings
Permit mail
Mailer’s postmarks
Personal computer stamps and markings
It’s important to note, however, that privately applied markings can be integral parts of a
state’s postal history. Examples of these markings that are linked to a local community,
like those illustrated in the following sections, should be collected along with the postal
markings of the community’s post office.
xxi
Meter stamps and markings
Postage meters have been approved for use by businesses since 1920. The machines
produce a marking that combines a rate franking with a postmark. Corner cards and
postmarks that include slogans, like those on the cover shown in figure 3, establish a
local connection and add interest to routine correspondence.
Figure 3: Cover enclosing business correspondence mailed at Westminster MD (ZIP code 21158) on May 17, 1999.
Postmarked on the same date during its transit through the Baltimore P&DC, where it also received the sprayed-on
directional markings at the bottom. Franking applied by postage meter that includes the advertising slogan for the
company shown in the two color corner card. A nice example of Westminster local postal history that also demonstrates
modern mail handling procedures.
Permit mail
Bulk rate mailings are typically franked with a permit imprint rather than a stamp and
postmark. The use of permits for such mailings was initially authorized in 1907. The
imprint generally identifies the rate category paid by the mailer and the post office that
issued the permit but does not provide specifics as to the amount of postage or the date
of mailing. Fees for bulk mailings are settled between the Postal Service and customer.
While it lacks a postmark, a permit mail piece can often be approximately dated from its
contents, style of permit franking, and/or the type of cover or card used.
xxii
Figure 4: Postcard sent at bulk rate, probably in the early to mid 1970s, under Permit No. 19 issued by the
Mount Airy MD post office. The card features a picture of actress Betsy Palmer promoting the DURACLEAN
carpet and furniture cleaning process. The company that sent this mailing, DURACLEAN by D & J, is still in
business in Mount Airy today, although it is no longer located on Main Street.
Mailer’s Postmarks
A mailer’s postmark permit can be obtained by any postal patron, either an individual or
a business, by submitting Form 3615 to a main post office (a first class office, not a
station or branch). Once the postmark design is approved, the patron is permitted to
use the device to cancel his or her outgoing mail. Generally, mail sent under a mailer’s
postmark permit must be deposited with the post office that issued the permit. Mailer’s
postmarks are easily identified by the permit number that is required as part of the
overall design (figure 5).
Figure 5: Cover mailed on April 16, 2001 from Baltimore with a Mailer’s Postmark Permit #8 purple hand
cancel. The permit was most likely issued by the main Baltimore post office, even though the ZIP code 21224 is
primarily associated with the Highlandtown Branch in southeast Baltimore. Note the use of a bulk rate stamp
(nominal value 25¢) along with 8¢ and 1¢ definitive stamps to pay the first class letter rate of 34¢. Individuals
can only use bulk rate stamps if the stamps are cancelled by a mailer’s postmark.
xxiii
Personal computer stamps and markings
Several Internet websites have been authorized by the U.S. Postal Service to sell postage
directly to consumers and businesses. Purchasing postage from one of these sites
essentially transforms a personal computer into a personal postage meter. The franking
applied to a cover or card is a meter stamp that includes the value of the postage
purchased and the ZIP code of the purchaser (figure 6).
Figure 6: Postmark and postage paid applied by personal computer utilizing the
stamps.com website. Mailed from Ellicott City (ZIP 21042) on May 31, 2007.
MOBILE POST OFFICES
Mobile post offices are mail processing facilities that operated aboard trains and later
buses rather than from a fixed physical location. Mail was transported aboard trains as
early as 1831 and in 1838 all railroads were designated as post roads by an act of
Congress. In 1864, the first railroad car devoted to carrying and processing the mail was
put in operation between Chicago, Illinois and Clinton, Iowa by the Railway Mail Service
(RMS), part of the Post Office Department.
The number of railroad post offices (RPOs), the term given to the railway mail cars,
expanded rapidly during the latter 19th and early 20th centuries. A slow decline began in
the 1920s with the growth of mail transportation by truck and eventually airplane. The
Post Office Department replaced some of the discontinued RPOs with highway post
offices (HPOs) beginning after World War II. HPOs operated aboard specially outfitted
buses, covering over one hundred thirty routes at the peak of service. The last HPO
made its final run in 1974, and the last RPO was discontinued in 1977.
xxiv
Postmarks from railroad and highway post offices show the beginning and ending
terminus of the route, along with the abbreviation “R.P.O.” or “H.P.O.” (Figures 7 and
8). A catalog of postmarks from the railroad and highway routes of Maryland is under
development.
Figure 8: First trip cover for the Baltimore and
Washington DC Highway Post Office dated
November 16, 1948. The HPO buses on this route
traveled along US 1 between the two cities. HPO
postmarks are typically seen on collector-prepared
covers such as this one; uses on actual correspondence
are seen infrequently.
Figure 7: Baltimore & Pittsburgh R.P.O. marking
dated September 10, 1911 on a postcard probably
mailed at Baltimore. This RPO route covered 342
miles over the tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad.
AUXILIARY MARKINGS
Auxiliary markings are notations applied to covers or cards by hand stamp, machine or
manuscript that provide additional information concerning the handling that a mail item
received. There are a myriad of such markings that can be found, explaining almost
every conceivable way that a piece of mail
was handled (or mishandled) during
transit. These markings range from the
commonplace, such as “Postage Due” and
“Returned to Sender”, to those describing
deadly mishaps that affected the delivery
of the mail or the condition in which it
was received, such as a train wreck or
airplane crash. A few are unrelated to
mail handling, like the “Back the Boys in
the Trenches” markings used during
Figure 9: Auxiliary marking “MISSENT TO
World War I to promote the sale of
LAUREL, MD.” on a postcard mailed from
government bonds to fund the war effort.
Canada on September 8, 1953. The card was
forwarded on to its correct destination, North East
MD, on September 11, according to the Laurel
machine cancel on the picture side.
Most auxiliary markings can be linked to
the offices from which they originated.
Those identified as having been used in
Maryland post offices, such as the example shown in Figure 9, will be added to the postal
history catalogs as part of a future project.
xxv
IV. SOURCES USED
MARYLAND HISTORY
1. Maryland, A Middle Temperament, 1634 – 1980, Robert J. Brugger: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, Baltimore, Maryland © 1988
2. Tercentenary History of Maryland, Matthew Page Andrews: The S.J. Clarke Publishing
Company, Baltimore, Maryland © 1925
3. The Civil War in Maryland, Daniel Carroll Toomey: Toomey Press, Linthicum,
Maryland © 2000
4. City on the Sand: Ocean City and the People Who Built It, Mary Corddry: Tidewater
Publishers, Centreville, Maryland © 1991
5. www.mdarchives.state.md.us, Maryland State Archives
6. www.dinsdoc.com, Dinsmore Documentation: “The Colonial Post-Office”, William
Smith, American Historical Review 21 (January 1916): 258 – 75.
7. www.citypaper.com, Baltimore City Paper Online: “What Can Maryland’s Troubled
History with Slot Machines Tell Us About the Odds for the Future?”, Stephen Janis,
Baltimore City Paper (December 1, 2004) © Baltimore City Paper
8. www.globalsecurity.org
9. www.apg.army.mil, Aberdeen Proving Ground
10. www.wikipedia.org, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
11. www.usps.com/postmaster/, United States Postal Service, Postmaster Finder
12. www.nps.gov, National Park Service
MARYLAND POSTAL HISTORY
General
1. The Postal History of Maryland, The Delmarva Peninsula and The District of Columbia,
Chester M. Smith, Jr. and John L. Kay: The Depot, Burtonsville, Maryland © 1984
2. United States Post Offices, Volume VI – The Mid-Atlantic, Compiled by Richard W.
Helbock: La Posta Publications, Scappoose, Oregon © 2004
xxvi
3. Postmasters and Post Offices of the United States, 1782 – 1811, Prepared by Robert J. Stets:
La Posta Publications, Lake Oswego, Oregon © 1993 by Robert J. Stets
4. Postmark Collectors Club, Margie Pfund Memorial Postmark Museum and Research
Center, The Willett-Thompson Collection, Research Disc 5
5. The Placenames of Maryland, Their Origin and Meaning, Hamill Kenny: Museum and
Library of Maryland History, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland ©
1984
6. Carroll County, Md. and Rural Free Delivery, An anthology distributed by The Historical
Society of Carroll County
Hand cancels
7. Maryland Postal History, D. Homer Kendall: David G. Phillips Co., Inc., North Miami,
Florida © 1984 [hand cancels up to 1855]
8. American Stampless Cover Catalog, David G. Phillips, Editor in Chief: David G. Phillips
Publishing Co., Inc., North Miami, Florida © 1997 [hand cancels up to 1870]
9. Cancellations and Killers of the Banknote Era, 1870 – 1894, James M. Cole: The U.S.
Philatelic Classics Society, Inc., Columbus, Ohio © 1995
10. “20th Century Postmarks Issued as Standard Equipment”, Doug DeRoest: La Posta,
September 1990 [4-bar hand cancels]
11. “Postmarks and Cancellations”, Richard W. Helbock and Dan Meschter: La Posta,
April – May 1987 [Steel duplex hand cancels]
12. Encyclopedia of R.F.D. Cancels, Second Edition, Harold E. Richow: La Posta
Publications, Lake Oswego, Oregon © 1995 by Harold E. Richow
13. www.doanecancel.com, Gary Anderson [Doane cancels]
14. Baltimore: Postal History From 1773 Until the UPU, Patricia Stillwell Walker, As received
by The Exhibition Photocopy Committee of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, Inc.,
May 2001
Machine cancels
15. A Primer: U S Machine Postal Markings, Bart Billings, Robert Payne and Reg Morris: ©
2005 by the authors (distributed by Machine Cancel Society) [General reference for
machine cancels]
xxvii
16. Standard Flag Cancel Encyclopedia, Third Edition, Frederick Langford: Pasadena,
California © 1976 by Frederick Langford [American Postal Machines Co. machines with
flag cancellations]
17. American Postal Machines Co., Transfer of Flag Cancellation Dies, Bart Billings: Machine
Cancel Society, Zephyrhills, Florida © 1991 [American Postal Machines Co. machines with
flag cancellations]
18. Same Year Use of Different Flag Cancellation Dies, Bart Billings: Machine Cancel Society,
January 1991 [American Postal Machines Co. machines with flag cancellations]
19. “American” Service Markings, Reg Morris and Robert J. Payne: Machine Cancel Society,
Warren, Ohio © 1991 [Service markings of American Postal Machines Co. machines.]
20. The Barry Story, Reg Morris & Robert J. Payne: © 1989 by the authors (distributed by
Machine Cancel Society) [Barry Postal Supply Co. machine cancels]
21. The Columbia Story, Reg Morris, Robert J. Payne and Timothy B. Holmes: Machine
Cancel Society, Warren, Ohio © 1998 [Columbia Postal Supply Co. machine cancels]
22. Standard Encyclopedia of Doremus Machine Cancels, Second Edition, Frederick Langford:
© 1988 by Frederick Langford [Doremus Machine Company machine cancels]
23. Database of International Postal Supply Company machine cancels recorded for
Maryland post offices (unpublished), Robert J. Payne: By permission of the Machine
Cancel Society [International Postal Supply Co. motor-driven machine cancels]
24. International Postal Supply Company, Hey-Dolphin Cancelling Machine, Model HD-2, Bart
Billings: Machine Cancel Society, Warren, Ohio © 1995 [International Postal Supply Co.
hand-powered machine cancels]
25. A Gazetteer and Catalog of International Model HD-2 Machine Postal Markings, Bart Billings
and Robert Payne: © 2005 by the authors (distributed by Machine Cancel Society)
[International Postal Supply Co. hand-powered machine cancels]
26. “International” Service Markings, Robert J. Payne: Machine Cancel Society, Warren,
Ohio © 1999 [Service markings of International Postal Supply Co machines.]
27. Thomas Leavitt, His History and Postal Markings, 1875 – 1892, Robert J. Payne: United
Postal Stationery Society, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California © 1999 [Leavitt machine
cancels]
28. “Pneumatic”, The Machine Cancel Society Specialized Study No. 8, The Machines and postal
markings attributed to The Pneumatic Cancelling Machine Co., 1898 – 1904, Reg Morris and
Robert J. Payne: Machine Cancel Society, Zephyrhills, FL © 1991
xxviii
29. Universal Stamping Machine Co. Machines and Postal Markings, Revision No. 2, Bart
Billings: Machine Cancel Society, Warren, Ohio © 1994 [Universal Stamping Machine
Co. machine cancels 1909 – 1920]
30. An Anthology of Machine Postal Markings, Universal Model K Machine Markings, Rich Small
and Bart Billings: Machine Cancel Society, Tampa, Florida © 1993 [Universal Stamping
Machine Co. Model K machine cancels]
31. United States Promotional Slogan Cancellations 1899 – 1940, Robert J. Payne: Bart Billings,
North Las Vegas, Nevada © 2005 [Machine cancels with slogan cancellations up to 1940]
32. PMCs: A Guide to Collecting Purple Machine Cancels, Robert M. Washburn: © 2000 by
Robert M. Washburn [Purple ink machine cancels]
Other cancels
33. The United States Railway Post Office Postmark Catalog, 1864 to 1977, Fred MacDonald
and Charles L. Towle: Mobile Post Office Society, Inc.
34. The United States Transit Markings Catalog, Volume IV, 1996 Edition, Fred MacDonald:
Mobile Post Office Society, Inc.
35. U.S. Route and Station Agent Postmarks, Charles L. Towle: Mobile Post Office Society,
Tucson, Arizona © 1986
36. United States Postage Meter Stamp Catalog, 2nd Edition, Joel A. Hawkins and Richard
Stambaugh: © 1994 by Hawkins and Stambaugh
37. Domestic United States Military Facilities of the First World War (1917 – 1919): A Postal
History, Robert D. Swanson: © 2000 by Robert D. Swanson
38. The Railway Mail Service, United States Mail, Railway Post Office, Clarence R. Wilking
(1985): © 2004 by Railway Mail Service Library
xxix