The US Postal Bulletins

The Digitized U.S. Postal Bulletin (Postal Bulletin)

The Daily Bulletin of Orders Affecting the Postal Service, later The Postal Bulletin, and still later just Postal Bulletin (PB) and for the proposes of this web site, U.S. Postal Bulletin, was and is a publication of the Post Office Department (POD) and later the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The purpose of this publication, which first appeared in March of 1880 and continues until the present, was/is to itemize and explain in great deal the services the Postal Service provides, to communicate the location of these services throughout the country, and to communicate the internal business of the Postal Service.

For decades the U.S. Postal Bulletin was published daily except Sundays and holidays, now every two weeks. Over the years this publication has produced well over 60,000 pages of content, most of which this web site now makes readily available to the philatelic public (1880 through 1971 - the reason for this limitation to these years is found in the “About the US PBC” section). It is an incredible resource for a person who wishes to understand POD operations and policies, locations for its services, types and rates for services, processes by which it functions, etc. In other words it is a voluminous source of research information.

Users of this web site will find a fully searchable digitization of the U.S. Postal Bulletin from 1880 to 1971. They will be able to submit simple or complex inquiries, including “full text” searches, as every word in each issue has been OCRed.

For example, one will be able to search all these lists by any individual city and state: Post Offices Established, Post Offices Discontinued, Postmasters Commissioned, Post Office Names and Site Changes, Post Office Names Changed, Post Office Sites Changed, PO Supplied by RFD, Superseded by RFD, Were RFD, now Discontinued, RPO Service Changes, RPO Services Established, RPO Through Registered Pouches, Railroad Services Changed, Railroad Service Established, Railroad Service Established-Discontinued-Changed, Electric Car Services Established, Changes in Star Schedules, Electric Car Service Changes, Mail Messenger Services Established, Mail Messenger Services Changed, Mail Messenger Services Discontinued, Fraud Order, Special Service Changes, Special Services Discontinued, Steamboat Services, Through Registered Pouches, Inner Registered Sacks, Stations and Branches, etc, etc.

But these numerous tabulations only represent a part of the invaluable information hidden in this resource. For instance all the rate changes tabulated in the Domestic and International rate books of Wawrukiewicz and Henry Beecher are located there, as are the rules and regulations for all special services. Beginning circa 1925, first-day information and stamp descriptions became available. Information concerning the Universal Postal Union, CAM and FAM routes, first-flights, the Permit process, free franking, the international parcel post, official mail services, interrupted mail, stolen postal money orders, nondenominated stamps, and so on are found there in detail.