Benjamin Franklin was named as the First Postmaster General of the United States, during the second continental congress in Philadelphia, an office that is older than tooth the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. In the beginning, the postal system mainly carried communications between Congress and the armies. This was the beginnings of the modern postal system in the US, which was later officially organized as the Post Office Department in 1792, and then replaced by the independent Postal Service in 1971 (by the Postal Reorganization act which was signed into law by Nixon, one of America’s lesser loved Presidents).

Even though the postal system is far older than many essential services we use on a daily basis, it is still a vital service and one we often take for granted. Direct mail, Magazines, and even invoices in and cheques out still flow the mail in the millions on a daily basis. We might be in the digital age, but we still haven’t given up our paper.