Minor Letter, Dead Letter Office

nice letter that ended up, after being advertised, in the dead letter office in Philadelphia, must have had something enclosed to end up in the minor dead letter office is what I understand from what google told me.

any one any more info and I am wondering if they are rare/collect-able. I have never seen one before...but that means ...not much

Of course the letter remains sealed until it gets to the DLO, which opens it and determines whether names or addresses are inside, the type and value of the contents, etc., and sends the letter to the correct division for action.

Marshall Cushing's valuable and informative book "The Story of Our Post Office" published in 1893 has a chapter "Dead letters and live ones" running between pages 242 and 276 describing the DLO operations (in Washington, DC, I think). A brief excerpt from pages 263-4 mentions and describes the "Minor Division", as opposed to the "Money Division":




The "B" is added as a separate handstamp within the DLO octagon, matching the "Batchelor & Co" address, for filing and finding purposes.

Quite collectible, not too valuable.

john, thank you and your knowledge keeps amazing me!

I suspect Cushing's book has been digitized and is available on-line, since it is in the public domain now, but I have a hard copy and have never looked for a digital version.

Marshall Cushing's valuable and informative book "The Story of Our Post Office" published in 1893 is available on line here:

***Link Removed - Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Wiley publishers all have copyright infringement lawsuits against the site linked. They also take and republish websites without permission.***

Instead here is a link
https://books.google.com/books?hl=e...e%22&f=false