A post box (British English; also written postbox; also known as pillar box), also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box (American English), is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail intended for collection by the agents of a country's postal service. The term post box can also refer to a private letter box for incoming mail.
In 1653, the first post boxes are believed to have been installed in and around Paris. [1] By 1829, post boxes were in use throughout France. [2] The first public post boxes in Poland were installed in Warsaw in 1842. [3]
A post box originally installed in the wall of the Wakefield Post Office is dated 1809 and is believed to be the oldest example in Britain. [4] It is now on display at the Wakefield Museum. [5]
In Britain, the first red pillar postboxes were erected in Guernsey in 1852. [6] Roadside wall boxes first appeared in 1857 as a cheaper alternative to pillar boxes, especially in rural districts. In 1853 the first pillar box in the United Kingdom was installed at Botchergate, Carlisle. In 1856, Richard Redgrave of the Department of Science and Art designed an ornate pillar box for use in London and other large cities. In 1859 the design was improved, and this became the first National Standard pillar box. Green was adopted as the standard colour for the early Victorian post boxes. Between 1866 and 1879 the hexagonal Penfold post box became the standard design for pillar boxes and it was during this period that red was first adopted as the standard colour. The first boxes to be painted red were in London in July 1874, although it would be nearly 10 years before all the boxes had been repainted. [7] In 2012, to celebrate Olympic gold medals for Team GB, selected boxes were painted gold. [8]
The first public letter boxes (post boxes) in Russia appeared in 1848 in St. Petersburg.[ citation needed ] They were made of wood and iron. Because these boxes were lightweight and easy to steal, they disappeared frequently; later boxes were made of cast iron and could weigh up to 45 kilograms (99 lb).[ citation needed ]
The post box arrived in the late 19th century Hong Kong and were made of wood. In the 1890s, metal pillar box appeared in Hong Kong and remained in use until the late 1990s. From the 1890s to 1997 the boxes were painted red and after 1997 were painted green. [10]
The United States Post Office Department began installing public mail collection boxes in the 1850s outside post offices and on street corners in large Eastern cities. [11] American collection boxes were initially designed to be hung or supported, and were mounted on support pillars, lamp-posts, telegraph poles, or even the sides of buildings. [11] By the 1880s, these pillar boxes were made of heavy cast iron to deter theft or vandalism. [11] As mail volume grew, the Post Office Department gradually replaced pillar mailboxes with larger free-standing models, though many of the pillar boxes continued in service as late as the 1960s. [11]
The four-footed, free-standing U.S. Mail collection box was first suggested in 1894, following the successful use of such designs in Canada, and quickly became a fixture on American city street corners. [11] [12]
Unlike Canadian mailboxes, which were painted red, [13] American mail collection boxes were originally painted in red or green. Beginning in 1909, all mail collection boxes were painted a dark green to avoid confusion with emergency and fire equipment. [11] Dark green gave way to olive drab green after World War I, when the United States Army donated a large supply of olive drab green paint to the Post Office. Olive drab green subsequently became the standard colour for all American mail collection boxes until 1955. On 4 July 1955, Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield announced that the Post Office would begin painting all mail collection boxes in red, white, and blue to make them easily identifiable. Subsequently, the Post Office began painting mail collection boxes in red and blue, with white lettering. [14] [15] In 1971 the United States Postal Service changed mail collection boxes to the current USPS Dark Blue with contrasting lettering. [12] [15] [16]
The coming of the automobile also influenced American mailbox design, and in the late 1930s, an extension chute or "snorkel" to drive-up curbside collection boxes was adopted. [11] Beginning in 2019 in New York City, the United States Postal Service began replacing collection boxes with a new model with a thin slit for the insertion of letters, instead of the former pull-down flap, in order to prevent "fishing" for valuable mail. The new boxes do not have extension chutes, so are harder to use in drive-up locations. [17] [18]
[19] In 1500, a Portuguese sea captain named Pêro de Ataíde lost much of his fleet in a storm off the Southern Cape. He wrote a message reporting the damage and a warning relating the state of affairs in India, for future Portuguese captains to avoid Calicut, which was now hostile. Ataíde tucked the message in a boot dangling from a milkwood tree near a spring where sailors often drew water, Aguada de São Brás (Mossel Bay).
Miraculously, the message was retrieved by its intended recipient, João da Nova, admiral of the outgoing 3rd armada, the very next year. The tree became a de facto post office box, where sailors would exchange letters protected in boots, iron pots, or beneath rocks. Seamen would leave their messages behind, trusting that their countrymen would pick them up and deliver them to their correct destination, albeit very slowly.
The Post Office Tree, now believed to be approximately 600 years old, still continues to send and receive mail. A large post office box shaped like a giant boot has been constructed beneath the tree, where people can send letters anywhere in the world and receive a special stamp. Presumably, delivery now takes less than a year.
Varieties of post boxes (for outgoing mail) include:
Some postal operators have different types of post boxes for different types of mail, such as, ordinary post, air mail and express mail, for local addresses (defined by a range of postal codes) and out-of-town addresses, or for post bearing postage stamps and post bearing a postage meter indicator.[ citation needed ]
Some countries have different coloured post boxes; in countries such as Australia, Portugal, and Russia, the colour indicates which type of mail a box is to be used for, such as 1st and 2nd class post. However, in Germany and parts of Sweden, because of postal deregulation, the different colours are for the different postal services. Other nations use a particular colour to indicate common political or historical ties. [20]
Post boxes or mailboxes located outdoors are designed to keep mail secure and protected from weather. Some boxes have a rounded or slanted top or a down turned entry slot to protect mail from rain or snow. [12] [21] Locks are fitted for security, so mail can be retrieved only by official postal employees, and the box will ordinarily be constructed so as to resist damage from vandalism, forcible entry, or other causes. [12] [21] [22] Bright colours are often used to increase visibility and prevent accidents and injuries. [23] [24] Entry openings are designed to allow the free deposit of mail, yet prevent retrieval via the access slot by unauthorised persons. [12] [25]
Post boxes are emptied ("cleared") at times usually listed on a collection plate fixed to the box. In urban areas, this might be once or twice a day. Busy boxes might be cleared more frequently to avoid overflowing, and also to spread the work for the sorters. Extra clearances are made in the period leading up to Christmas, to prevent boxes becoming clogged with mail.[ citation needed ]
Since 2005, most Royal Mail post boxes have had the time of only the last collection of the day shown on the box, with no indication of whether the box is cleared at other times earlier in the day. Royal Mail say they needed to increase the type size of the wording on the plate to help those with poor sight, and so there was not enough room to list all collection times throughout the day. Some post boxes may indicate the next collection time by a metal 'tab' [26] or dial that can be changed while the box is open. The tab displays a day or number, each number corresponding to a different time shown on the plate.
Some boxes have been used as a dumping ground for used hypodermic needles. [27] In such cases staff are issued with protective equipment. [28]
In 1952, a number of post boxes were attacked[ quantify ][ where? ] in Scotland in a dispute over the regnal number adopted by Queen Elizabeth II, which was displayed as the EIIR cypher. This included at least one damaged in Gilmerton Road, The Inch, Edinburgh by a homemade explosive device. This was because many Scottish people did not believe Queen Elizabeth II should take that title. Rather Elizabeth Queen of Scots as Scotland had never had a Queen Elizabeth before. [29] [30]
Following a civil case in the Scottish courts, a compromise was reached where the Crown of Scotland was placed upon Scottish pillar boxes in place of the St Edward's Crown, without any reference to the particular reigning monarch. To this day Scottish post boxes and Royal Mail vans use the Scottish Crown with no mention of Queen Elizabeth II or King Charles III. [29] [30]
During 1939 a number of bombs were put in post boxes by the IRA as part of their S-Plan campaign. When the Provisional IRA blew up the Arndale shopping centre in the 1996 Manchester bombing, one of the few things to survive unscathed was a Victorian pillar box dating from 1887 (a type A Jubilee pillar).
In Northern Ireland several red Royal Mail post boxes were painted green by Irish Republicans in early 2009, in order to resemble An Post's post boxes in the Republic of Ireland. [31] [32] [33]
Nearly 7,000 USPS collection boxes were removed following the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks in which letters containing anthrax spores were placed in public collection boxes. [11]
The earliest known surviving posting slot was placed in the wall of Wakefield Post Office in Yorkshire in 1809
Postal workers in Derby are being warned to take care after a rise in the number of used syringes being found in post boxes.
Protective gloves are issued to postal workers emptying a Somerset postbox used by drug addicts to dump needles.
A postbox that was painted gold in Jessica Ennis's home city of Sheffield, to celebrate her Olympic triumph, has been vandalised.
The Royal Mail has promised to paint a postbox in Olympic cycle champion Laura Trott's home town gold, after first painting one in the wrong place.
Farrugia, Jean (1969). The letter box: a history of Post Office pillar and wall boxes. Fontwell: Centaur Press. p. 282. ISBN 0-900000-14-7.
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The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, its insular areas and associated states. It is one of a few government agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution of the United States. As of 2023, the USPS has 525,469 career employees and 114,623 non-career employees.
Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). Formed in 2001, the company used the name Consignia for a brief period but changed it soon afterwards. Prior to this date, Royal Mail and Parcelforce were part of the Post Office, a UK state-owned enterprise the history of which is summarised below. Long before it came to be a company name, the 'Royal Mail' brand had been used by the General Post Office to identify its distribution network.
Postage stamps and postal history of the United Kingdom surveys postal history and the postage stamps issued by that country, and its various historical territories until the present day.
A mail carrier, also referred to as a mailman, mailwoman, mailperson, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, postperson, person of post, letter carrier, or colloquially postie, is an employee of a post office or postal service who delivers mail and parcel post to residences and businesses. The term "mail carrier" came to be used as a gender-neutral substitute for "mailman" soon after women began performing the job. In the Royal Mail, the official name changed from "letter carrier" to "postman" in 1883, and "postwoman" has also been used for many years.
A post office box is a uniquely addressable lockable box located on the premises of a post office.
A letter box, letterbox, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail at a private residence or business. For outgoing mail, post boxes are often used for depositing the mail for collection, although some letter boxes are also capable of holding outgoing mail for a carrier to pick up. Letterboxes or mailboxes use the following primary designs:
Hongkong Post is a government department of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a trading fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as Postal Department or Post Office before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It has been a sub-member of the Universal Postal Union since 1877, and is a separate entity from China Post.
A pillar box is a type of free-standing post box. They are found in the United Kingdom and its associated the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, and, less commonly, in many members of the Commonwealth of Nations such as Cyprus, India, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Malta, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, as well as in the Republic of Ireland. Pillar boxes were provided in territories administered by the United Kingdom, such as Mandatory Palestine, and territories with agency postal services provided by the British Post Office such as Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait and Morocco. The United Kingdom also exported pillar boxes to countries that ran their own postal services, such as Argentina, Portugal and Uruguay.
Wall boxes are a type of post box or letter box found in many countries including France, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, Crown dependencies and Ireland. They differ from pillar boxes in that, instead of being a free-standing structure, they are generally set into a wall or supported on a free-standing pole, girder or other stable structure.
Lamp boxes are the smallest of the post boxes used by the Royal Mail in the UK, by its counterparts in the Commonwealth of Nations and also by An Post in Ireland. Their name derives from the fact that they were designed to be affixed to lamp posts, although they may equally be found embedded in walls or mounted on poles.
Within the United States, a commercial mail receiving agency (CMRA) is a private business that accepts mail from the Postal Service on behalf of third parties. A CMRA may also be colloquially known as a mail drop. A mailbox at a CMRA is called a private mailbox (PMB).
The Crown of Scotland is the centrepiece of the Honours of Scotland. It is the crown that was used at the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, and it is the oldest surviving crown in the British Isles and among the oldest in Europe.
A mail truck or post van is a type of delivery vehicle that is used to transport post. Originally horse-drawn, most modern mail trucks are automotive vehicles.
Post offices and other mail service providers typically offer a mail forwarding service, commonly known as hybrid mail or virtual post office box services, to redirect mail addressed to one location to another address – usually for a given period. In the case of the United States Postal Service's First Class Mail, it is generally for a period of one year. British Royal Mail provides a service called Mail Redirection, enabling redirection for up to two years. Customers of such a service usually, but not exclusively, use mail forwarding when they change an address.
In modern heraldry, a royal cypher is a monogram or monogram-like device of a country's reigning sovereign, typically consisting of the initials of the monarch's name and title, sometimes interwoven and often surmounted by a crown. Such a cypher as used by an emperor or empress is called an imperial cypher. In the system used by various Commonwealth realms, the title is abbreviated as 'R' for 'rex' or 'regina'. Previously, 'I' stood for 'imperator' or 'imperatrix' of the Indian Empire.
The Pillar Box War refers to a number of politically motivated acts of vandalism against post boxes in Scotland during the early 1950s in a dispute over the correct title in Scotland of the new British monarch, Elizabeth II or Elizabeth I.
In the UK, a Ludlow wall box is a post box where mail is deposited to be collected by the Royal Mail. They are built into stone pillars or the walls of buildings and are never found free-standing. This is because they are made largely from wood. They were nearly all made by the now-defunct company of James Ludlow & Son of Birmingham, whose name they take. Similar designs exist as historical artefacts in certain Commonwealth countries. Ludlow style boxes have been in use since 1885 and were in continuous manufacture until 1965.
Koninklijke TNT Post BV was the national postal company in the Netherlands, owned by TNT N.V. Until May 2011, it operated under the brand TNT Post and employed 75,000 people.
Centralized mail delivery is a unique form of mail delivery system where a letter carrier provides delivery and collection services to a number of residences from a centrally located installation – whether in a single-family subdivision or multi-family structure. Business customers also receive delivery services from a convenient central location. Centralized mail delivery equipment can be in the form of any "clustered" type mailbox – including free-standing, pedestal-mounted cluster box unit (CBU), or other cluster mailboxes mounted in a wall, kiosk, or shelter. The U.S. Postal Service prefers centralized mail delivery in all new construction because it is less expensive. The United States Postal Service aims to continue to review and modify its operations to provide universal service as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. Therefore, there is pressure to establish centralized mail delivery, which is required in some communities.
To commemorate British gold medal winners at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics, various post boxes in the home towns of the medal winners around the United Kingdom, plus one each on Sark and the Isle of Man, were repainted gold. It marked the first occasion in modern times that the colour of post boxes in the United Kingdom had been changed from their traditional red. Originally intended to be a temporary measure, due to the positive public response it was later decided the colour change would become a permanent tribute, with boxes additionally receiving their own special plaques.
