Going Parcel Post

Mrs. Murphy’s Mailbox is a snailmail blog that celebrates sending things through the post, obviously, but I simply cannot condone what Mr. and Mrs. Pierstorff sent through the mail on February 19, 1914!! 🤨

The Pierstorff’s took advantage of the affordable, recently initiated Parcel Post service and sent their daughter, Charlotte May, through the mail to her grandmother’s house!! 😳

Five-year-old Charlotte May Pierstorff was sent by her parents from Grangeville, Idaho, to her grandparents 73 miles away.  They placed 53¢ in stamps on her coat and handed her over to the postal worker on the railway mail train, who also happened to be her relative.  Despite her safe delivery to her grandmother’s doorstep, once Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson heard her story, he officially prohibited postal workers from accepting humans to be mailed. Even after this, some people still attempted to mail children, but postmasters rejected their applications claiming they couldn’t be classified as “harmless live animals.” 😂 

You can read about Charlotte May’s adventure via the postal service in the book, Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnel and Ted Rand. 

February is Letter Month and I am all in favor of sending fun and interesting mail! In this time of difficult travel it would be fun if we could simply mail ourselves to visit our far away friends and penpals. Perhaps we can... 🤔 See the adventures of The Mailable Mrs. Murphy here: Be A (Paper) Doll Send Fun Mail

Go postal, people! (But don’t be the post!)

XOXO

Mrs. Murphy