About Indiana Postal History

Indiana Postal History is an independent reference site for people who are curious about how mail moved through Indiana and how to collect the covers, postmarks and stamps it left behind. It covers the Hoosier State from the territorial period through the railway age and into modern commemoratives.

What you will find here

• Plain-language guides to stampless covers and town cancellations.
• Stories about railway post offices, stagecoach and canal mail and rural delivery.
• Notes on stamps issued for Indiana and on the Santa Claus postmark.
• A beginner's guide to building and caring for a collection.

Our approach

Postal history is the study of how mail was carried, charged for and marked. A stamp tells you what was paid. A postmark tells you where and when. The route, rate and handling marks between them tell you how the letter travelled. We favour the cover over the loose stamp, because the cover keeps the whole story together.

Articles are written as general guides. Dates and details are checked against public sources such as the National Postal Museum and the Indiana Historical Bureau, but collectors should always confirm specifics against a current catalogue before buying or exhibiting.

Illustrations

Images on this site are original illustrations created to show typical covers, scenes and equipment. They are not photographs of specific historic items.