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Special passport for postal employee
Object Details
- Description
- This special passport was issued by the Department of State to a postal employee during World War I. It was intended to allow him unrestricted passage to England and France where the Post Office Department was establishing a service to support the deployment of U.S. forces abroad. To ensure it was used only by the correct employee--Charles P. Leary--the passport includes a photograph and a physical description. It also includes an explanation of his business abroad and a request that he is treated well and allowed free movement.
- Travel orders of this kind were initially issued to a select number of experienced postal employees that travelled to France shortly after the decision was made to deploy American military personnel to Europe. Soon joined by larger numbers of civilian postal workers they established the Army Postal Service. Within months these workers were dealing directly with a vast amount of U.S. military mail all across Europe.
- This network developed into the beginnings of the Military Postal Express Service, the first postal system in the world to be clearly distinguished from an established government postal system. It became a separate organization following tensions over the War Department’s reluctance to disclose to the Post Office Department the locations of military units. Although the military post offices established during World War I were disabled following the end of the war, a precedent was set for the managing of mail in all future conflicts.
- References
- Bruns, James H. “Letters in War: The Post Office Department in World War I”. The United States Specialist 662 (1985): 159-166.
- Buck, Joseph F. “The Yanks are Writing: A General History of the A.E.F Postal Service”. The American Philatelist 48 (1935): 445-457.
- Sackett, Richard W. “The Beginning of the American APO” . The American Philatelist 932 (1978): 857-867.
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Date
- 1917
- Object number
- 1984.0798.1066
- Depicts
- Charles Leary
- Type
- Archival Material
- Medium
- paper; ink
- Dimensions
- Height x Width: 17 5/16 x 12 in. (43.97 x 30.48 cm)
- Place
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Postal Museum Collection
- Topic
- Postal Administration
- Record ID
- npm_1984.0798.1066
- Usage
- CC0
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