Yesterday, I went to the Post Office – I was out of stamps!
They showed me a couple of different stamps to choose from – so I picked Owney .
Owney was the first Postal Mascot. In 1888, he was found curled up in a pile of old mailbags, later they let him ride atop of the horse-drawn mail wagons. Owney was considered a good luck charm. Workers attached metal baggage tags to his collar to mark his travels, But after a while the Postmaster General presented Owney with a harness like jacket to show off his tags – he logged in about 140,00 miles by train.
In 1895 Owney sailed around the world as a Goodwill Ambassador- shipped under “Registered Dog package”.
In 1897 Owney’s was in failing health and blind, living in a Post Office in Albany, New York – but someone placed him on a train to Toledo – Where he became frighten and scared and bit a Postal Worker and was shot and killed.
Postal clerks took up a collection and Owney was stuffed. He now lives at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC
Here at the Library we have a book called “An American Postal Portrait” (383.497 A) has lots of interesting information on a system that has been a big part of our society –
Oh yea, there is a picture of “Owney” too.
Posted by Margarita