Newspaper Ad In Combination With Advertised Cover?

Does someone have the combi of a cover that could not be delivered, was stamped advertised and a copy of the matching advertisement in the newspaper?

really wondering what the newspaper advertisement looks like in combination with the cover

I have found the ads difficult to find. The process should get easier as more and more newspapers get digitized, etc. Here is an example from 1871:

Origin postmark is very faint RPO dated Sep 22 just above "Mrs Mary", a lone "Sep 22" is the date received into general delivery


The arced "Advertised" mark is quite unusual! It likely had the lower part of the circle removed.

The letter inside as a nice bonus:


The ad from the October 7, 1871 Richmond (Indiana) Weekly Palladium giving the Oct 6 list, with Mary Jane Morrow mid-way down the right column.


(Richmond, IN did not get city delivery until 1881.)

Very cool John. I am impressed.
Stay well

Wow... I had no idea this was a thing. So was this standard before home delivery? People had to buy a paper to know if they had a letter waiting? Or did they make it a daily ritual to check at the post office?

That makes 2 of us.

I could not even interpret the first post, I was

john, thank you for showing! I find this an extremely nice part of postal history and great to see the 2 together

old bold and bash, as far as I know it was not that, but when a letter was un-deliverable this was the way to solve it. so not every letter was advertised...just the one they could not deliver.-

john, please correct me when I am wrong...this is what google told me

Add me to the list of people that did not know about this. So interesting. You always learn something on this forum. Quite amazing effort put forth by the Post Office back in the day. What the heck happened?

Just to remind everyone, newspapers were read by "everyone" at this time. They were the local, regional, national, and world news. If your name was on one of these lists, someone would find you and let you know.

To weave some more fabric ... Here are scans from pages 81-82 from the 1873 edition of "The Postal Laws and Regulations", the chapter on dead and unclaimed letters, as very close to the 1871 mailing date of the letter I posted earlier.



Note the option of posting a list in a public place or publication in a newspaper (not every town/village had a newspaper). Thus the challenge of finding a newspaper-published list for every cover. Some listings simply just don't exist in newspaper form. The advertising procedure is largely the same in the decades before and after.

To paint very broadly ... Prior to 1863, mail was picked up by calling for it, placed in your rented lobby box, or (in large cities) delivered at an extra carrier fee. Beginning in 1863, free city delivery service began in the largest US cities, gradually expanding over the following decades to smaller cities, but still most patrons had to pick up their mail as a "general delivery" letter at the post office until well into the 1880s or later. The rate books document the reduced rates for local mail mailed at non-carrier offices into early 1968, but that is tangent to the topic here. The latest advertised cover I have is dated 1923 and the regulation volumes list procedures well after that.

It is amazing to me that the unclaimed letter list is so small. And yes, I would agree with wkusau, regardless of publishing in a newspaper or a public posting of a list, that word of mouth would soon get to the bulk of those people listed.

Apparently advertised them a month or more. This cover (also 1871) was received Dec 14 per the rimless Taunton Mass on the back.
Not called for by Jan 4th, it was advertised until Mr. Lazaro picked it up on Feb 3 1972.

It seems unusual the Taunton would backstamp a cover upon pickup. There was no need to do that.

I propose rather, that the Feb 3 backstamp was the date that its month of waiting in the advertised pile ended, the "not called for" was simultaneously added to the front and it was sent to the Dead Letter Office.

The "L 451-20" is a filing mark, "L" for Lazaro. Note this link to a James Lee newsletter. Two covers show similar alphabet letters: Page 1 with a "T" for Turner, and page 3 with an "R" for Russell, in addition to a following "205-22" - quite similar in format to yours.

https://www.jameslee.com/News94/News94_5-8.pdf

I think your cover was handled similarly through the Dead Letter Office, rather than picked up.

This topic is fascinating to me.

After collecting for more than 60 years, lately I have found myself drawn more and more into an interest in postal history but I am unsure how to expand out into that area.

In addition to my own postal history (huge collection of covers accumulated during my working career), I collected covers illustrating proper usage for 1922-32 definitives to include in a simple exhibit.

Any suggestions where to learn more? How should I go about it? Is picking a specialty wise?

Thanks for sharing this!

Here are two more:

Washington DC, mailed Dec 15, 1863 to Evansville, IN.
Not promptly claimed so advertised in list of Dec 29, 1863 (published the next day, December 30, 1863 in Evansville Daily Journal). William Lahr's name is in the left column, second from the bottom. Nice "due 1" and "advertised" handstamps. No backmarks.



West Austintown, OH mailed July 30, (1878) to Ft Wayne, IN. Backstamped at Ft Wayne on July 31, (1878).
Unusual style of mourning cover!
Not promptly claimed so advertised in list of Friday, August 17, 1878. (Published on Monday, August 19, 1878). Mary M. Burns name is 7th in the first column. Apparently not claimed thus backstamped again at Ft Wayne on Sep 14 and "not delivered" added to front on its journey to the dead letter office.

John, again, thank you for sharing, this is exceptional en I keep learning.

i knew this existed, I have some advertising covers, just never seen the advertisements itself before.

great stuff and thank you for sharing your covers and knowledge