Benjamin Franklin served as postmaster general until his diplomatic mission to France in November 1776. He was in office when the Declaration of Independence created the United States in July 1776, which made Franklin the first Postmaster General of the United States. America’s present Postal Service traces its origins to the system Franklin initiated.

The United States Postal Inspection Service story actually begins 252 years ago, in 1773.

In early colonial times, most correspondence ran between the colonies and their mother countries. It was largely to handle this mail that, in 1639, the first official notice of mail service in the colonies appeared.

Vaibhav Singh, a recipient of a National Postal Museum research prize, examines the history of postage stamps of the Indian subcontinent representing information in more than one language and script.