Assorting the mail, railway postal service – Historic Reproduction
![Assorting the mail, railway postal service, [between 1920 and 1950] — antique engraving](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/78/783b0aa4cdc9-L.webp)
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
A window into the past: Assorting the mail, railway postal service, preserved in this antique engraving. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.
Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. A fine choice for anyone who loves history, and a gift that gets noticed. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
Assorting the mail, railway postal service
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Postal clerks sort letters inside a railway car in this scene, with the work shown as it happened aboard a moving train. The Railway Mail Service, formally established in 1864, had clerks sort mail en route so bags could be routed toward their destinations without waiting at each station. Harper's Weekly, a popular illustrated newspaper of the period, published the original wood engraving in its October 9, 1875 issue. This later reproduction, made between 1920 and 1950, preserves how the work looked a few decades after the Railway Mail Service began.
| Created / published | [between 1920 and 1950] |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print. |
| Genre | Wood engravings 1870-1880 Reproductions 1920-1950. |
| Notes | Reproduction of wood engraving in Harper's weekly, 1875 Oct. 9. No. 536. |
| Subjects | Railroad mail service--1870-1880. Postal service employees--1870-1880. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 1,164 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-163421 |
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