The Post Office

Auguste Charles Pugin|Thomas Rowlandson|Rudolph Ackermann, London

April 1, 1809 · Hand-colored etching and aquatint · Drawings and Prints

England had the world's fastest postal system in the nineteenth century. In 1809 mail coaches averaged eight miles an hour, including five minutes allowed to change horses. This office, housed in a seventeenth-century mansion, handled 170,000 to 200,000 letters weekly, sorting them between 4:30 and 8 pm and delivering them between 6 and 11 the next morning. The recipient paid the delivery man from 4 pence for 15 miles to 1 shilling and 1 pence for 500 miles. In 1840 the British postal system saved itself such complicated bookkeeping by inventing penny stamps for the sender to buy.

Artist

Auguste Charles Pugin|Thomas Rowlandson|Rudolph Ackermann, London

Date

April 1, 1809

Medium

Hand-colored etching and aquatint

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959