Provincetown
MASS., WITH THE PILGRIM MONUMENT IN THE BACKGROUND, TO COMMEMORATE THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS AT THIS PLACE Modern Photo Service THE AMPHITHEATER AT POLA, ON THE ADRIATIC SEA THE PERISTYLE OF THE HOUSE OF VETTI, AT POMPEII Publishers' Photo Service RUINS OF POMPEII, WITH VESUVIUS IN THE DISTANCE E Ε. M. Newman THE
GOVERNOR'S PALACE, PORTO RICO E. M. Newman A COUNTRY HOME AND NATIVE FAMILY IN PORTO RICO Newman Traveltalks and Brown & Dawson PLOWING WITH MODERN MACHINERY IN PORTO RICO POSTERS from 1639, when the house of Richard Fairbanks in Boston was employed for the receipt and delivery of letters for or from beyond the seas. He was allowed for every letter a penny and was obliged to answer all miscarriages through his own neglect. In 1672 the government of New York colony established "a post to go monthly from New York to Boston"; in 1702 it was changed to a fortnightly A general postoffice was estabone. lished and erected in Virginia in 1692, and in Philadelphia in 1693. A deputy postmaster-general for America was appointed in 1692; and by act of Parliament in 1710 he was directed to keep his principal office in New York, "and other chief offices in some convenient place or places in other of Her Majesty's provinces or colonies in America"; a monopoly was established which included also the transport of travelers, and a tariff was fixed. The system, however, proved a failure, till 1753, when Benjamin Franklin became postmaster-general; when he was removed from office in 1774 the net revenue exceeded $15,000.
In 1789, when the postoffice was transferred to the new Federal Government, the number of offices in the 13 States was only about 75. Events in the history of the American postal service have been the negotiation of a postal treaty with England (1846); the introduction of postage stamps (1847), of stamped envelopes (1852), of the system of registering letters (1855); and the establishment of the free-delivery system, and of the traveling postoffice system (1863); the introduction of the money order system (1864), of postal cards (1873), and, between the last two dates of stamped newspaper wrappers, and of envelopes bearing requests for the return of the inclosed letter to the writer in case of non-delivery; the formation of the Universal Postal Union (1873); the issue of "postal notes" payable to bearer (1883); and the establishment of a special delivery system (1885), under which letters bearing an extra 10-cent stamp are delivered by special messengers immediately on arrival. See UNITED STATES: Section PoST OFFICE.