Search results
In the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street, two mail sorters handle a letter addressed to "Kris Kringle" at the New York City courthouse, and decide to deliver all the Santa Claus mail now in the dead letter office to the courthouse, where a man calling himself Kris Kringle is facing a mental competency hearing.
The Mail Recovery Center (MRC) in Atlanta receives and processes items that are undeliverable, unendorsed, or found loose in the mail. Learn the guidelines, procedures, and tips for sending or donating items to the MRC, and the items that are not allowed or processed by the MRC.
Nov 4, 2015 · Learn how the U.S. Post Office dealt with millions of letters and parcels that never reached their destinations, from illegible addresses to explosives. Discover the stories behind the Dead Letter Office museum, where tourists marveled at the strange and notorious items on display.
- Atlas Obscura
Learn how the USPS deals with mystery mail that can't be delivered or returned, from Benjamin Franklin's threats to modern technology. Discover the origins, functions and stories of the Dead Letter Office and its employees.
From mystery addresses and deficient postage to unclaimed items, undeliverable mail fell to the care and handling of the Dead Letter Office. For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Dead Letter Office functioned to ensure all measures were taken to uphold the bargain that postage paid assured delivery.
Around the turn of the century, the Dead Letter Office received about 7 million dead letters annually. Sometimes luck played a part in correcting "ghost" mail, as in the case of a letter marked "Miss Isabel Marbury, Stock."
Sep 29, 2015 · Learn about the history and function of the USPS Mail Recovery Center, where lost mail ends up. Find out how postal sleuths try to deliver the mail, and what happens to the items that are not claimed.
