My Latest Postcard Review
This entry was submitted 1 month ago.
This postcard arrived from a pen pal who lives in United States after 6 days of travel covering a distance of 221 miles / 356 kilometers.
The cartoon figure, Mr. ZIP, was adopted by the Post Office Department as the trademark for the Zone Improvement Plan or ZIP Code on July 1, 1963. However, the figure originated several years earlier as a design by Harold Wilcox, son of a letter carrier and a member of the Cunningham and Walsh advertising agency, for use by Chase Manhattan Bank in New York in a bank-by-mail campaign. Wilcox’s design was a child-like sketch of a postman delivering a letter.
This postcard brought back so many memories of my childhood, when Mr. ZIP’s (Zippy) image was a very prominent icon when it came to mail in the United States.
After receiving this card from my pen pal, Kerri, I had to read a bit more history about Mr. ZIP!
I was surprised to learn that AT&T acquired the design and made it available to the Postal Service, at no cost, AND artist Joe Lawrence (Miami Post Office) sharpened the limbs and torso, added a mail bag and re-named him Mr. ZIP (originally called Mr. P.O. Zone). While Mr. ZIP was unveiled in October 1962, he had already become less relevant by the late 1970’s and was retired by the US Postal Service in 1986, yet he remains in the memories of many who grew up with him.
You can read more about Mr. Zip at:
https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/pdf/mr-zip.pdf
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/collections/object-spotlight/mr-zip
(Be sure to listen to Ethel Merman sing the Zip Code song)
https://facts.usps.com/mr-zip/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._ZIP