Highway Post Office Service

Topical Reference Page
The museum's Highway Post Office Service bus on the highway

The museum's Highway Post Office Service bus.

The Post Office Department inaugurated Highway Post Office (HPO) Service on February 10, 1941. This service was to be a mail distribution network comprised of rapid pick-up, sorting, and dispatch to key points en route between two principal terminal cities.

Glossary: Highway Post Office Service

screenshot of HPO bus video
Highway PO Mail
Location: 
Atrium

As railroad service to many small towns declined from the 1940s to the 1960s, the Post Office Department turned to busses to ensure that these communities would get their mail. The museum's Highway Post Office Service bus is not on display in the museum but some mail delivered by Highway Post Office buses is on display. It's located on the panel just outside the Railway Mail Service car, near Owney.

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refer to caption
Highway Post Office Bus
Object Spotlight

The first Highway Post Office bus was inaugurated on February 10, 1941, on a route running from Washington, D.C. to Harrisonburg, Virginia.

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A screenshot of the Highway Post Office Service bus video showing a billboard with the front of a HPO bus
Mail by Rail - Highway Post Office Buses
Exhibition
By the 1930s, a significant decline in railroad passenger traffic had caused a subsequent decline in the use of railway trains. To fill the void, the postal service transferred some en route distribution from trains to highway buses. Special covers were designed for the Highway Post Office first trips.
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Motorized Highway Post Office Service envelope
Mail by Rail - Highway Post Office First Trip Covers
Exhibition
See some of the envelopes carried on Highway Post Office bus inaugural trips.
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Interior of the nation’s first Highway Post Office bus
The Railway Mail Service - HPOs and Airmail
Research Article
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5-cent Grant single on sorting & distribution wagon cover
About Philately - Land Mail
Exhibition
Between Independence and 1792 the United States Gereral Post Office (1775-1829) changed little from...
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Mail on Wheels
The Highway Post Office bus service was referred to as the “Modern Day Pony Express,” and was one the most technologically advanced processing and transportation systems that the Post Office provided.
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The museum's Highway Post Office bus being pulled out of a garage
Preserving the Highway Post Office Bus
The Highway Post Office bus, manufactured by the White Motor Company in 1941, has had an interesting history before becoming part of the Smithsonian’s collection in 1968.

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Three-wheeled, gas-powered, quarter ton, lightweight mail delivery van is known as a “mailster.”
Machines or Bust - Transporting the Mail
Research Article
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Related Blogs

Sarah Raffurty, intern, visiting the HPO #1 bus.
My Life With a Bus
08.06.2015

For the past nine weeks, I have had the pleasure of being an intern at the National Postal Museum, in the Curation Department. This internship has been an opportunity of a lifetime! The more internships I do in this field, the more I find a passion for my work. Internships like the National Postal Museum make me very excited for future opportunities, and working with the curator, Nancy Pope, has led to an incredible summer. My focus this summer has been researching and writing about the Highway Post Offices (HPO). My main goal was to tell the story of the HPO bus #1, which is in NPM storage. The article will be put on the website and is the first piece of mine that will be for public viewing. All my past education has led me to this moment, and I hope to make my supervisors proud of the work that I have done.

Learn more About My Life With a Bus

Mailbags and windows inside a highway post office bus
Unexpected Treasures: Highway Post Office Bus
02.01.2012

One of the largest items in the museum's collection is a White Company-manufactured bus. While a postal museum may not seem the most natural fit, this is a very special bus. It is the first bus built and used for the Highway Post Office service.

Learn more About Unexpected Treasures: Highway Post Office Bus

White HyPO ad
Bus, Not Horse, Power
05.25.2010

This advertisement, for the White Motor Company, was published in a number of magazines, including the May 24, 1941 issue of “The Saturday Evening Post.”

Learn more About Bus, Not Horse, Power

Postmaster General Frank C. Walker watches as President Roosevelt deposits a letter into the first Highway Post Office bus.
Curator's Picks -- Did You Know?
12.08.2009

Did you know that one of the first people to have their mail sorted on the new Highway Post Office bus was President Franklin D. Roosevelt?

Learn more About Curator's Picks -- Did You Know?

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