pneumatic postal kit

Unlike the telegraph of the past and the SMS of the present, pneumatic post maintained its material form throughout its journey. This meant that the senders' instant messages could be scented with perfume, the receiver able to read correspondence handwritten and hand-drawn. The letter's journey was traceable through stamps and other markings.

Pneumatic tube systems are important for moving objects which carry personal traces of the sender, whether this be a tissue sample for pathological analysis or a handwritten letter. Letter writing has now become more of a craft rather than the everyday activity it once was. While the days of sending scented instant messages under our city streets have disappeared, I may have just found a lovely alternative from the Letter Writers Alliance: their Pneumatic Post kit.

From the website:

Remember the joy of going to the drive-through at the bank and popping that deposit tube into the pneumatic pipe? Bring back that sense of wonder with our Pneumatic Post. This kit brings back the Victorian pneumatic tube system and updates it for today. A great way to add an extra special bit of magic to a letter. We give you everything in the kit to send the Tube back and forth, even the postage for the first mailing! Write your message, roll it up, and pop it in the Pneumatic Tube. You can even add extra treats in the tube to add an extra ray of sunshine for your awesome correspondent.

Unfortunately the kit is not for international members (presumably non-US members). International letter writers however might want to search elsewhere on the site for other correspondence kits that take their fancy. Like this gorgeous Telegram Stationary for example.

The mission of the Letter Writing Alliance is as follows:

In this era of instantaneous communication, a handwritten letter is a rare and wondrous item. The Letter Writers Alliance is dedicated to preserving this art form; neither long lines, nor late deliveries, nor increasing postal rates will keep us from our mission.

Image from the Letter Writing Alliance website, used with permission.

poetic medic stamps

The H-Net listserv recently posted the news of a William Carlos Williams commemorative stamp, and as both an important poet and doctor, I thought this deserved a mention here too. William Carlos Williams has been described by some anthropologists as a true ethnographer, in the way he observed about, reflected upon and wrote about his patients.

This commemorative stamp coincides with another stamp release in Australia, of well-known Australian doctors, sent to me by my mother.  

For those interested in medical philately, there is a specialist in the area called Fred Skvara, who writes articles in the newsletters of the Medical History Society of New Jersey, available online at http://libraries.umdnj.edu/History_of_Medicine/MHSNJ/index.html. Fred's next talk on medical philately will be at the Medical History Society of New Jersey's Spring Meeting, Wed. May 16, Nassau Club, Princeton NJ. For the full program, http://www.mhsnj.org/4.html