Post Office 250th Anniversary | Postcard 3 of 12

Celebrating 250 Years of the United States Postal Service Anniversary Collection

In 2025, the United States Postal Service celebrates a monumental milestone—250 years of connecting our nation.

This commemorative postcard collection captures our rich postal history through 12 unique designs. Each postcard reveals a pivotal moment in mail history, complete with fascinating facts and trivia.

Postcard 3 of 12: Postage Stamps
This postcard highlights the establishment of the Railway Post Office (RPO) in 1864.

At the time, mail was transported by various methods, including horseback, stagecoaches, steamboats, and trains.

For mail transported by train, the mail remained in sacks, unopened from one post office to the next. This system was inefficient and lead to delays.

The Railway Post Office introduced the innovation of sorting mail en route, significantly improving delivery speed and efficiency, and operated for over 113 years, from 1864 to 1977.

By 1951, the RPO network employed 30,000 clerks, utilized 3,200 cars, covered 165,000 miles, and handled 93% of all non-local mail.

Collect All 12
A new postcard will be released each month. When you collect all 12, they will align to form a timeline spanning from 1775 to 2025—a visual story of how the Post Office has shaped America.

With the release of the third postcard, here is the current layout:

Size: 4"x6"
Paper: 110lb card stock with a smooth matte finish

---

99-08-03 | Postcard not officially affiliated with or endorsed by the USPS