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Little America Post Office safe

National Postal Museum

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Object Details

Associated Organization
Little America (Antarctica) Post Office (USPS)
Description
To commemorate Admiral Robert Byrd's Antarctic Expedition II, the Post Office Department issued a postage stamp designed by President Franklin Roosevelt and sent postal clerk Charles F. Anderson to cancel mail for philatelic collectors at Little America, Antarctica. Arriving in November 1934, Anderson found numerous letters sent the previous year had not been processed. He prepared a total of 153,217 mail pieces in just 16 days in the station 20 feet below the ice with just enough heat to keep the ink from freezing. This safe stored stamps, cancellation dies, and other valuables at the small temporary postal station.
Combination lock safe used by the Post Office at Little America, South Pole.
The safe was brought to Antarctica with Byrd's second expedition.
Metal safe; green w/gold lettering outlined in red & black; 'U.S.POST OFFICE/LITTLE AMERICA/SOUTH POLE'; combination loc
1934
Object number
1984.0015.1
Type
Mail Processing Equipment
Medium
metal (iron); wood; paint (black and green with gold lettering)
Dimensions
Height x Width x Depth: 21 × 16 × 18 in. (53.34 × 40.64 × 45.72 cm) Height x Width x Depth (Crate Dimensions): 30 1/2 × 27 × 29 in. (77.47 × 68.58 × 73.66 cm) Weight (total weight of current crate and object): 303 lb.
Place
United States of America
See more items in
National Postal Museum Collection
National Postal Museum
Topic
Post Office Structures
Record ID
npm_1984.0015.1
Usage of Metadata (Object Detail Text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/hm873c77fa9-9fae-4db6-a20c-7ee6f4f2ed73
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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