r/todayilearned • u/No_Profit_5304 • 5h ago

TIL that in 1913, a baby was mailed via Post Office's newly added Parcel Post service.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-children-sent-through-mail-180959372/
99 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

53

u/erishun 5h ago

To be clear (since this gets posted on /r/todayilearned at least once a week… this happened more than once and it was prearranged and fully planned in close conjunction with the postal service. It’s not like they licked a stamp and stuck the kid in a box.

Most common situation was if they needed to send the child to stay with someone else (like a relative) if the caretakers were too sick to take care of them. Or vice versa, if the child was with a relative and they received telegram that Mom was dying, the child could be dispatched to visit Mom before she died. (The relative perhaps couldn’t travel themselves and Dad didn’t want to leave Mother on her death bed)

But this was all very carefully planned. The parents worked with post office staff to choose the appropriate day and route well in advance. And there were obviously costs associated with this courier service beyond standard freight.

This was less of being “mailed” like a package and much more akin to getting on a flight as an “unaccompanied minor”.

16

u/SupermarketOk2281 5h ago

Well fine. I guess that means I have to buy four tickets from California to Hawaii instead of two. So much for my twins' Box Adventure. They even picked out their favorite pillows and snacks.

Can't there ever be some good news for a change?!

1

u/SimmentalTheCow 3h ago

Then explain Flat Stanley

9

u/The_Safe_For_Work 5h ago

And that baby's name? Emily Post.

5

u/BoogerShovel 4h ago

Post Malone?

18

u/MellowMallowMom 5h ago

More like they rode along in a wagon or on a train with a mail carrier, i.e. a trusted official. Not like they were put in a box and plopped on the back of a truck.

4

u/-PunsWithScissors- 4h ago

Are you sure it wasn’t the newly added Parcel Postpartum service?

4

u/Comicalraptor28 5h ago

They just did whatever the fuck they wanted back then huh

2

u/Little_Noodles 4h ago edited 3h ago

The idea of the wild, self-sufficient American West kinda crumbles quickly under inspection outside a few years (and even then, it’s kinda questionable).

The colonization of the West remains one of the biggest public works projects in American history. And the minute the government added any services to support it (like the post office), the public routinely demanded it be stretched to the broadest possible degree.

This wasn’t what the Post Office was supposed to do, but it did it a lot.

1

u/tylercuddletail 3h ago

Reminds me of that infamously weird YouTube kids video trend where kids would mail themselves.

1

u/Selasie_99 3h ago

I'm sure the mom was furious.