I acquired this cover (Figure 3) at an auction because of the advertisement. It's a very bold one, depicting an allegoric figure...

This item, which is just a piece of an envelope or wrapper with a stamp on it, is largely a mystery to me. It was postmarked at the Rome,...

Beginning in 1855, the Post Office provided a registry service to more securely move high-value matter through the mail system....

This envelope was probably mailed sometime around 1854, and unless the sender made a mistake in calculating the amount of postage needed,...

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), which was organized in 1874 and today is a specialized agency within the Union Nations, coordinates...

This plain looking cover was postmarked September 5, probably in 1860 based on the notation to the left, in Chicago. It then made its way...

This cover is likely from the early 1850s. I assume that is the case because this envelope has two stamps that help narrow the timeframe....

This cover from 1894 is beat up, but it has a neat train car-themed ad and a recipient who died of a pistol shot! It was mailed from...

These two covers were sent from Baltimore, Maryland to the same address in Lowell, Massachusetts - "J.C. Ayer Co." - just one week apart...

This is a nice cover to highlight even though I have no clue who sent it. The cover has 2-cents worth of postage, which was the letter...

On January 1, 1893, the US Postal Service released its first-ever commemorative stamps, i.e., stamps issued to celebrate a specific event...

This advertising cover was sent from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Greene, Maine sometime in the spring of 1895. In Figure 1, you can just make...

This advertising cover was sent on December 17, 1888, from Rochester, New York to Cobbleskill (or Cobleskill), New York, a small town...

This patriotic cover from the Civil War is franked with a 3-cent US Scott Catalog #65 and was postmarked in Washington, DC on June 30,...

The Territory of Wisconsin existed from July 3, 1836, until May 29, 1848, when Wisconsin became the 30th state. This is one of only four...

This is a fascinating item from the US Civil War. It is a letter sent on September 19, 1862, from Newport, Kentucky (just across the Ohio...

The cotton trade between the North and South was robust in the pre-Civil War era. The Northern textile mills depended on a steady supply...

This cover is an interesting one, and I would love to confirm who sent it and what was in it. The cover was sent from Madison, Wisconsin,...

Lynchburg, Virginia, about 180 miles southwest of Washington, DC, was a very wealthy town prior to the Civil War. One significant source...

Wisconsin became a state in 1848, and in 1898, semi-centennial celebrations were held in Milwaukee and Madison and probably elsewhere in...