Mailing Secrets

A Postsecret published last Sunday:

I love finding new random post offices
to send my secrets from!

But I was terrified while talking these pics that
the workers would think I was panning a terrorist plot!

Completely Unexpected Deliveries

(Updated)

The American Museum in Britain
Claverton Manor, Bath

Just the day before the floods of the end of October, unaware of the danger, I posted six pieces of mail in this mailbox. It seems they did not pick them up, and the following week I saw the mailbox was out of service. So, I assumed the box had been flooded and the letters destroyed.

The pillar box has remained unoperational for not less than three and a half months*. I had already given up hope but it looks like they emptied it in February. From February 13 to March 21, four five all  the letters and postcards reached their recipients in different countries, postmarked on February 12.

Maybe we can still wait for the remaining two one to arrive, right?

-----

*March 8: It is unoperational again!

Postbox Saturday | Run-of-the-Mill Post Office

Segorbe (Castelló)

Postbox Saturday | Via Laietana

Pictures of a post box in Via Laietana, Barcelona, in front of the former main post office building. Notice some mail slots behind the pillar box.

Postbox Saturday | Calaceite

This is the post office in Calaceite (Teruel, Spain). It has very restricted opening hours, like most post offices in the area. But I like the fact they write the current rates on the box itself (on the white label). So that no one sends a letter with the wrong stamp.

As a bonus, a pillar box from the same village. The pictures were taken in August 2023. It was really hot.

Postbox Saturday | La Fresneda

This is the tiny post office in the village of La Fresneda (Teruel, Spain). 

I like the fact that there are two mail slots on the door. One of them is for posting your letters in (picture below). The other one... is it for getting letters addressed to the post office?

I cannot ask it, because the post office was closed. Actually, it is quite difficult to find it open. The opening hours (?) are from 13:45 to 14:00.

Postbox Saturday | Province of Alacant

Tabarca

Alcoi

Alcoi

Post Office in Santander

A friend sent this picture from his holidays. It shows the main post office in Santander (Spain), built between 1918 and 1926, and still in use.

Not sure if you can appreciate it from this picture, but there is one of the beautiful lion post boxes.

Postbox Saturday | Nearby Towns

Ares del Maestrat

Catí

Catí

Morella (post office)

Morella (post office)

Morella

Sant Mateu

Postbox Saturday | Province of València

Simat de la Valldigna

Otos

Carrícola

Postbox Saturday | Adjoining Towns

Càlig

Benicarló

Alcossebre

Ireland Galore

Shaped cards sent (looong ago) by Heleen (the Netherlands) and Laura (the UK).

And more Irish postcards and stamps, sent by Laura from the UK and Ireland. I guess Saint Patrick's Day is the appropriate time to show them on the blog. Despite the celebrations being cancelled... It is still St Patrick's Day!

To celebrate the Bicentenary of the official opening of the GPO 200 years ago, An Post issued this commemorative stamp which features an image of the GPO engraved by Robert Havell in 1820. The building still serves as the headquarters of the Post Office in Ireland as well as housing the internationally recognised GPO Witness History centre.

 Actually, I didn't received the stamp itself, but this (big!) postcard.

Bedford Tower, dating from 1761 is the centrepiece of Dublin Castle's principle Georgian courtyard. The complex of buildings is generally open to the public as a tourist attraction except when hosting State functions.

View of College Green and the entrance to Trinity College. Dublin City.

This one was sent by Béibhinn (Ireland), through the Postcrossing site.

Vibrant and exciting, Galway City is situated at the mouth of Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland. It is Ireland's third largest city and the only one in the province of Connaught.  

Clockwise from top left: Eyre Square, bustling city street, traditional pub and the Spanish Arch.

And this one sent by Nora, also thanks to Postcrossing. With a lot of information about the Irish Alphabet.

My friends Lie & Steeve (Spain) visited Dublin and sent me the whole city on a postcard!

"Dublin is the capital city of Ireland with a population approaching 2 million people and covers an area of 115sq Kilometres. Situated on the estuary of the River Liffey and in the province of Leinster, Dublin has more green spaces than any other European city. This card shows the Ha’penny Bridge over the river Liffey, the Temple Bar, Merchants Arch, the Campanile, Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Spire and O’Connell St. and colourful Georgian Doors."

Old Sign

Old sign indicating a post office, photographed in the old town of Tortosa. I wonder how long it will still be there...

Post Office Murals

Mural of Cincinnati (detail)
Saul Steinberg (1914-1999)

US Post Office lobby artwork painted in the 1930s and 1940s was celebrated on 10 April 2019 with the issuance of the Post Office Murals Forever stamps.

The origin of Post Office murals can be traced back to 1933. That year, in a letter to longtime acquaintance President Franklin D. Roosevelt, artist George Biddle suggested that the U.S. government should commission artists in need of work to enliven the walls of public buildings. Later that year, perhaps spurred by Biddle’s plea, the Roosevelt administration established the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). The New Deal program led to the hiring of more than 3,700 artists.

From 1934 through 1943, the Section commissioned more than 1,000 murals. The buildings were some of the country’s most widely trafficked public spaces, which meant many people could enjoy the murals.

Each of the pane's 10 stamps features a detail of one of five unique murals.

Sugarloaf Mountain, 1940
Rockville, Maryland

The work of Judson Smith (1880–1962) appears in Post Office locations in Upstate New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Painted in oil on canvas, Sugarloaf Mountain depicts the small peak located near Frederick, Maryland. The Post Office in Rockville, Maryland, where the mural was initially installed is now a police station.

Antelope, 1939 
Florence, Colorado

The Section of Fine Arts commissioned artist Olive Rush (1873–1966) to create murals displayed at public buildings in Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico, where she lived. Painted with tempera, Antelope features a herd of pronghorn, which are sometimes referred to as American antelope. The mural hangs in the lobby of the Florence Post Office in Colorado.

Mountains and Yucca, 1937
Deming, New Mexico

Painted in oil on canvas by Kenneth Miller Adams (1897–1966), Mountains and Yucca depicts Cookes Range, located in southwestern New Mexico just north of the Deming Post Office where the mural is displayed. This landscape is rendered in soft colors and features yucca shrubs and trees and other plant life.

Kiowas Moving Camp, 1936
Anadarko, Oklahoma

One of the Kiowa Six, a group of 20th-century Native-American artists hailing from Oklahoma, Stephen Mopope (1899–1974) designed a multi-part mural depicting Plains Indian life. Mopope and Kiowa Six artists James Auchiah (1906–1974) and Spencer Asah (ca. 1906–1954) painted 16 murals with tempera paint directly to the plaster walls in the lobby, including Kiowas Moving Camp. They can be seen at the Anadarko Post Office in Oklahoma.

Air Mail, 1941
Piggott, Arkansas

Daniel Rhodes (1911–1989) created murals that adorn public buildings and Post Office walls in the Midwest. Painted in oil on canvas, Air Mail depicts a letter carrier helping pilots load bags of mail onto their plane. The mural, which hangs in the lobby of the Piggott Post Office in Arkansas, is an ode to postal workers’ commitment to serving communities across the United States and beyond.

Information taken form here. Stamps sent by Bryon and Phillip (the USA).

Nostalgic Postcards

Postcard sent by John (the UK). 

Liverpool's new post office, opened in 1899, wa, like the North Western Hotel, lit throughout by electricity and was another pointer to Liverpool's importance as a centre of communications. Employing in its primer over 1,000 staff, in 1936 it coped with 11,800,000 letters, 141,000 parcels, 210,000 telegrams and 1,500,000 phone calls a week! Sadly, it was badly damaged during the Second World War and had since remained derelict.

And also John sent this postman from the old times...

Postcard sent by Micu (the USA).

In this nostalgic photo, Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse pose in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Park.