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  • Overland Mail employee's notebook
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Overland Mail employee's notebook

Object Details

Description
A leather flap clasps this notebook printed by Hellier and Company Publishers, New York. Issued by the Overland Mail Company to conductors, agents, drivers, and station managers working on the express stagecoach route, the notebook was designed for recordkeeping. Its accordion pocket and multiple sections hold a fold-out map of the mail route; instructions for employees of the Overland Mail Company; schedules for the stagecoach; rates of postage; and spaces to record a daily log for the calendar year 1859 and to track accounts.
The contract for mail service on the southern route from Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, was awarded to John Butterfield's Overland Mail Company in 1857. Butterfield would provide six years of service at the unheard-of rate of $600,000 per year for the 2,800-mile long route. The first eastbound stagecoach departed San Francisco on September 15, 1858, and the westbound stagecoach left St. Louis a day later. This semi-weekly service was scheduled to reach the final destination in twenty-five days carrying mail and passengers. In 1861, the Overland Mail stagecoaches moved to the central route after the financial failure of the Pony Express on that line. The move helped the federal government ensure stable contact with gold-rich California through the Civil War.
Reference:
Ormsby, Waterman L. The Butterfield Overland Mail. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1942.
Data Source
National Postal Museum
Date
1859
Object number
1990.0564.1
Associated Person
John Butterfield, American, 1783 - 1869
Associated Organization
Overland Mail Company
Type
Archival Material
Medium
leather; paper; ink; cotton
Dimensions
Height x Width x Depth: 6 1/2 × 3 5/8 × 1 in. (16.51 × 9.21 × 2.54 cm)
Place
United States of America
See more items in
National Postal Museum Collection
Topic
American Expansion (1800-1860)
Postal Administration
Record ID
npm_1990.0564.1
Usage
Not determined
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/hm823896f20-d739-4f1a-bef1-d59cbb55a644
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HomeSmithsonian National Postal Museum

Plan a Visit

TEMPORARILY CLOSED
Open every day (except December 25)
10:00 am to 5:30 pm

Admission is always free!

2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E.
Washington, DC 20002

street map of Postal museum

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