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Postal Service (U.S.)

USPS

image by Ben Cahoon
source: www.worldstatesmen.org

Description
Mail Flag
Air Mail Flag

See also:

Description

The USPS is an independent executive branch agency.

The flag is blue with the logo in center and fringed in gold.

sources:
1. www.washingtonpost.com
2. i1.ytimg.com/vi/Y11ELWCmMNg/hqdefault.jpg
3. ww4.hdnux.com/photos/07/06/62/1862787/3/628x471.jpg
Logo: logonoid.com/images/usps-logo.png

Dave Fowler, 11 September 2013

Mail

Mail Flag circa 1900 to after 1950
image by Joseph McMillan, 9 August 2005

U.S. Mail flag for ships, mid-19th to early 20th century
image by Joseph McMillan, 9 August 2005

I had a chance today to look at the Annin & Co. (flagmakers) "Wholesale Trade Catalogue" for 1914, which shows the blue U.S. mail flag at the top of page 27.

The flag is dark blue (same color as for canton of U.S. national flag as printed in the catalogue, and probably as manufactured), rectangular, with bold sans-serif white block letters reading "U.S.M." about half the height of the flag. The periods following the letters are round and smaller than in most type fonts I know of. The font looks roughly similar to Tahoma bold, but the middle of the M reaches all the way down as in Arial Black.

The catalogue offers the flag in 10 sizes (all in feet): 2x3, 2.5x4, 3x5, 4x6, 5x8, 6x10, 8x12, 10x15, 10x18, and 12x20. The same page shows the red U.S. Mail pennant, which the catalogue describes as being produced according to official specifications. It does not say that about the blue rectangular flag, which leads me to believe that the blue flag was unofficial. I would guess that the red pennant, with its more complex design, was probably introduced to counter misuse of the easy-to-produce, unofficial blue one. As previously noted on the mailing list, the purpose of these flags was to give the ships flying them preferential port handling priority. I don't have a date when the red pennant was introduced, but it shows up as early as the 1905 edition of the German Navy's Flaggenbuch.

Joe McMillan, 22 August 2002

The pennant was a red swallowtail with dark blue upper and lower borders, a blue and white version of the US coat of arms (but with the head facing the fly) in the hoist and the words "UNITED STATES MAIL." in white in the fly, the first two words in an arc and the last one, with the period, beneath.

This pennant was flown by ships carrying mail in a similar fashion to the Royal Mail pennant used by British vessels. It was adopted some time around 1900--it appears in the 1905 Flaggenbuch of the German Navy--and was still in use in 1950 when the U.S. Merchant Marine Council issued a set of flag guidelines calling for the "U.S. Mail flag" to be hoisted at the port yardarm on the day of departure as well as upon arrival in port by any ship carrying mail. I have not been able to find official records on the adoption of this pennant, but that it was official is attested by Annin & Company's listing of it in their 1914 catalogue as complying with official specifications.

The same Annin & Co catalogue also shows the older U.S. Mail flag, blue with the initials U.S.M. in white block letters. This flag seems to have been in use by the 1870s, as a painting of the American Line steamer Indiana in the collection of the Peabody-Essex Museum, www.pem.org/archives/mpd/t1828.htm, shows it flying from the foremast, with the house flag of the American Line at the main. The style of lettering on this flag was probably not fixed by regulation; paintings show a Roman style of lettering with serifs, while the Annin catalogue shows a simple sans-serif style.

Joe McMillan, 9 August 2005

Air Mail

image by Joseph McMillan, 7 August 2005

The U.S. Air Mail flag was (according to [gsh34]) adopted by the Post Office Department to be flown over airport buildings handling air mail. The flag was white with bands of blue-white-red and red-white-blue at the top and bottom and the badge of the Air Mail Service in gold in the center.

According to [gsh34], the flag was adopted on 1 September 1930. On the other hand, the Smithsonian Institution's Postal Museum's website www.postalmuseum.si.edu captions its photograph of the flag implying that it dated to 1918, which was when the Post Office took over the flying of the mails from the Army Air Service. However, two specific mentions of its use would seem to date it to the later period. The first, an article on the website of Memphis [Tennessee] Magazine, memphismagazine.com/backissues/july2001/askvance.htm, relates a story about the mayor of Memphis hoisting the flag in 1931 in connection with the first airmail flight from Memphis. The story shows a commemorative envelope for this flight with a stamp showing the same badge as the flag. The second, at, www.godickson.com/ks1.htm shows a photograph of the air mail station manager at Burbank, California holding what it describes as "the first air mail flag at Burbank" circa 1930.

The image was made working from the Postal Museum photograph.

Joe McMillan, 7 August 2005

From the magazine Popular Mechanics, February 1931:

New Air Mail Flag Soon to Fly at Airports

An official air mail flag, recently adopted by postal authorities, soon will be hoisted over all airports at which United States mail is handled. Red, white, and blue stripes at its top and bottom edges resemble the markings on air mail envelopes.

On a central field of white, a device worked in gold represents a globe bearing the words "U.S. Air Mail," flanked by two wings. Colonel L. H. Brittin, of Northwest Airways, designed the flag, which was dedicated by Assistant Postmaster General Glover.

Joe McMillan, 30 January 2009