Is it possible to mail a human being like we do a package?

When it was Legal to Mail a Baby 

On January 1, 1913, the then Cabinet-level U.S. Post Office Department -- now the U.S. Postal Service -- first started delivering packages. Americans instantly fell in love with the new service and were soon mailing each other all sorts of items, like parasols, pitchforks and yes, babies.

Smithsonian Confirms

Yes, as documented in the article, “Very Special Deliveries,” by curator of the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum Nancy Pope, several children, including one “14-pound baby” were stamped, mailed and dutifully delivered by the U.S. Post Office between 1914 and 1915.The practice, noted Pope, became affectionately known by letter carriers of the day as "baby mail." According to Pope, postal regulations, being few and far between in 1913, failed to specify exactly “what” could and could not be mailed via the still very new parcel post service. So in mid-January 1913, an unnamed baby boy in Batavia, Ohio was delivered by a Rural Free Delivery carrier to its grandmother about a mile away. “The boy’s parents paid 15-cents for the stamps and even insured their son for $50,” wrote Pope. Despite a “no humans” declaration by the Postmaster General, at least five more children were officially mailed and delivered between 1914 and 1915.

The End of Baby Mail

The Post Office Department officially put a stop to “baby mail” in 1915, after postal regulations barring the mailing of human beings enacted the year before were finally enforced. Even today, postal regulations allow the mailing of live animals, including poultry, reptiles, and bees, under certain conditions. But no more babies, please. Read more...

Back to Culture