In 1911, the Post Office Department transferred a large number of postal history objects they had gathered to the Smithsonian. A number of objects from the Dead Letter Office were included in the transfer. Dead letter items are those that the post office can neither deliver nor return, due to poor or missing addresses. The dead letter objects transferred to the Smithsonian came from undeliverable packages and included this one pound package of snuff. The egg-shaped container is covered with revenue stamps (used to denote tax payment on the snuff).
