This article is about the postal agency that existed prior to 1971. For the current postal agency in the United States, see United States Postal Service.
"Post Office Department" redirects here. For the former Canadian Post Office Department, see Canada Post.
United States Post Office Department
Postal system overview
Formed
February 20, 1792 (1792-02-20)
Dissolved
July 1, 1971 (1971-07-01)
Superseding agency
United States Postal Service
Headquarters
William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Postal system executive
Postmaster General
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, established in 1792. From 1872 to 1971, it was officially in the form of a Cabinet department. It was headed by the postmaster general.
The Postal Service Act, signed by U.S. president George Washington on February 20, 1792, established the department. Postmaster General John McLean, in office from 1823 to 1829, was the first to call it the Post Office Department rather than just the "Post Office." The organization received a boost in prestige when President Andrew Jackson invited his postmaster general, William T. Barry, to sit as a member of the Cabinet in 1829.[1] The Post Office Act of 1872 (17 Stat. 283) elevated the Post Office Department to Cabinet status.[2]
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), postal services in the Confederate States of America were provided by the Confederate States of America Post-office Department, headed by Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan. It faced insurmountable obstacles, especially the requirement that it not run a deficit.[3]
The Postal Reorganization Act was signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970. It replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service on July 1, 1971. The regulatory role of the postal services was then transferred to the Postal Regulatory Commission.
^"The United States Postal Service: An American History 1775 – 2002". United States Postal Service. September 2003. Archived from the original on October 30, 2004.
^"Indexes to Rosters of Railway Postal Clerks, ca. 1883 – ca. 1902". National Archives and Records Administration. August 15, 2016.
^Anderson, John Nathan (2013). "Money or Nothing: Confederate Postal System Collapse during the Civil War". American Journalism. 30: 65–86. doi:10.1080/08821127.2013.767666. S2CID 152927495.
and 23 Related for: United States Post Office Department information
The UnitedStates Postal Service (USPS), also known as the PostOffice, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch...
competitive process by the UnitedStatesDepartment of the Treasury. Some 1,400 murals were created for federal postoffice buildings in more than 1,300...
was completed in 1941. These shipments, overseen by the UnitedStatesPostOfficeDepartment, totaled roughly 417 million troy ounces (12,960 metric tons)...
the UnitedStates. The surgeon general's office and staff are known as the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG), which is housed within the Office of the...
The UnitedStatesDepartment of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration...
India Post is an Indian government-operated postal system in India, and is the trade name of the Department of Post under the Ministry of Communications...
In Canada and the UnitedStates, a railway postoffice, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service...
The UnitedStatesDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to...
the UnitedStates, the chief of protocol is an officer of the UnitedStatesDepartment of State responsible for advising the president of the United States...
The UnitedStatesDepartment of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the UnitedStates Cabinet department...
The General PostOffice (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the...
The British PostOffice scandal, also called the Horizon IT scandal, involved the PostOffice pursuing thousands of innocent subpostmasters for apparent...
president and take office after confirmation by the UnitedStates Senate, and serve at the pleasure of the president. The heads of departments are members of...
UnitedStates airmail was a service class of the UnitedStatesPostOfficeDepartment (USPOD) and its successor UnitedStates Postal Service (USPS) delivering...
the PostOfficeDepartment showed a man on a running horse, even as railroads and, later, motorized trucks and airplanes moved mail. In 1971, the Post Office...
in the UnitedStates, this often led to smaller communities being renamed after their post offices, particularly after the PostOfficeDepartment began...
The UnitedStatesDepartment of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic...
PB27/1 type post box in Hong Kong with "EIIR" cypher Post boxes in Taipei, Taiwan A post box in India The UnitedStatesPostOfficeDepartment began installing...
Global Information