The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

1 2 2 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yFigure 1. Penny Black, posted May 6, 1840. From the collection of James Grimwood- Taylor, M.A.,F.R.P.S.L.came to the throne. One of the first things she did as queenwas to appoint a Select Committee on Postage, chairedby postal reformer Robert Wallace, MP, and charged tolook into the condition of the post with a view towardspostal rate reduction. Victoria, on August 17, 1839, gaveroyal assent to the Postage Duties Bill and, in 1840, usheredin Uniform Penny Postage. Instrumental to this legislationwere widely publicized, arguably exaggerated talesabout economic hardship and depravities resulting fromhigh postage, which appeared in Hill’s pamphlet as wellas The Post Circular, a newspaper which today we wouldcall a postal reform “propaganda sheet.” 4 The Victoriansalso rallied for and welcomed Uniform Penny Postage asa means to improve economics, morality, science, employment,and education. Visions of young women saved frombecoming fallen women, sober and literate soldiers, contentedmill workers no longer interested in striking, andhome control—these imagined situations became alignedwith affordable postage and moved the early Victorians,still shaken by the example of the French Revolution, tosupport a reform that had widespread social, political, andeconomic implications.Although we now humorously refer to posted lettersas “snail mail,” when the postage stamp first appeared,it was as revolutionary as e- mail, text messages, tweets,and blogs are to us today. By 1860, Victorians of all socialclasses rushed to their post offices to make the lastdaily posting, as George Elgar Hicks captures in his monumentalnarrative painting of St. Martin’s- le- Grand, Londonentitled The General Post Office, One Minute to Six(1860). The Penny Post transformed the mail from an expensivetax for revenue to a civic service for “the peer tothe peasant.” 5 The abolition of franks—postmarks grantingfree carriage of mail—for Members of Parliament andthe Queen chipped away at England’s rigid class system.In turn, the Penny Post led to an unprecedented boom inletter writing and became a vehicle for education, kinship,friendship, and commerce (Figure 1).Prepayment came via two inventions attributed toRowland Hill: a postage stamp called the Penny Black,