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Music has been present in the postal employee community from the time employee groups began to organize. And among the musically inclined, the earliest were the Letter Carriers’ Bands, which became integral to NALC solidarity. Since then, choirs and bands have continued to form. These groups gather together most often for the enjoyment of members. Some groups take their acts public. Most play locally for postal and community events, though some have achieved national fame.
One of the earliest examples of postal worker camaraderie after hours is the creation of letter carriers’ bands through the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). The NALC was organized in 1889 and letter carriers’ bands arrived soon after. There are conflicting accounts about which band existed first, but Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Omaha, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Jersey City, and Newark letter carriers’ bands were all in existence by 1900...
In the 1950s and 60s, a group of postal workers from the Miami Branch area joined together as the Singing Mailmen of Miami and were later adopted as a voice of the Post Office Department. Twenty-five letter carriers and clerks organized in 1954 as a non-profit nondenominational glee club.(1) A letter to a local Miami newspaper stated “We are not a fanatic group, but this we do believe: where others have failed, music has opened the...
1) “Good Will,” The News Tribune (Ft. Pierce, FL), February 19, 1960.
