See the Surprising Ways the U.S. Mail Has Been Delivered Over the Years

  • City letter carriers pose with handcarts used to collect and transport mail, 1885.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    1 of 10
  • City collection mail wagon manufactured by Studebaker Brothers. The wagon was used to collect mail from sidewalk mailboxes in Chicago, 1890.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    2 of 10
  • Postal officials encouraged Rural Free Delivery (RFD) carriers to replace their horses and wagons with electric-motored vehicles, but this 1910 postal worker was surely only able to complete his wintertime rounds thanks to a snow-plowed road. Automobiles were not yet adequate replacements for horses and sleds on rural roads.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    3 of 10
  • Three-wheeled mail collection motorcycle in Washington, D.C.The motorcycle was used only on an experimental basis in DC in 1912.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    4 of 10
  • A letter carrier collecting mail from a sidewalk mail collection box. His mail truck is parked at the curb. 1915.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    5 of 10
  • Postal employees loading mail into a de Havilland mail airplane at Hadley Field in New Brunswick, N.J. Transcontinental airmail service had begun in the summer of 1924 and was then extended to east coast with the completion of a series of airmail beacons that helped guide pilots across the country.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    6 of 10
  • Rural carrier Lloyd Mortice created this unusual vehicle for use on his snow-bound New England route. Mortice fitted his 1926 Model-T with a steel track on the rear drive shaft, enabling him to drop either wheels or skis into place in front, depending on weather conditions.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    7 of 10
  • Officials are gathered to welcome the first Highway Post Office bus in Strasburg, Va., on Feb. 10, 1941. By the 1930s, a significant decline in railroad passenger traffic had caused a subsequent decline in the use of railway trains. To fill the void, the postal service transferred some en route distribution from trains to highway buses.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    8 of 10
  • In 1953, a letter carrier drives one of the Department’s new right-hand drive vans on the snowy streets of an unidentified city. The Department ordered thousands of new postal vehicles in the early 1950s as part of its post-war modernization plan. Few of the dozens of different vehicles ordered during that drive were re-ordered in large quantities.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    9 of 10
  • In 1955, a city letter carrier is seated in a three-wheeled "mailster" motor vehicle. Carriers used these vehicles to carry the ever-increasing amounts of mail that was being delivered to American households after end of the Second World War, but they could be immobilized in as little as three inches of snow, did not heat properly and were easily tipped over.
    Smithsonian's National Postal Museum
    10 of 10
By Lily Rothman

As the holiday rush moves into full throttle, the U.S. Postal Service is predicting that Monday will be the season’s busiest mailing day for the packages and cards Americans use to send their loved ones season’s greetings. It’s estimated that 5.5 billion cards, letters, flats and packages will be sent through the mail this season and—even though use of the USPS web services is also expected to peak on Monday—that’s sure to mean that many Americans will find themselves waiting in line to get their bundles weighed, stamped and sent.

But while the mail sent today will likely be delivered in familiar trucks or planes, the postal service has employed a number of delivery techniques over the years, from horse-drawn carriages to surprising snow plows. Here are just a few of those vehicles from more than 100 years of postal history, as seen in photographs from the collection of the National Postal Museum.

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com.

You May Also Like
Next Up: Editor's Pick
What America's Richest Ski Town's Handling of COVID-19 Shows
EDIT POST