Transportation of Mail

In nineteenth-century America, the areas between the city and the country were known simply as "the borderland." By the 1930s, with the help of trolleys, or streetcars, these areas had developed into what we still call "the suburbs." Expanding urban populations and the increased availability of automobiles encouraged people to relocate further from metropolitan centers, but still within commuting distance.

Transportation of the Mail depicts the many methods of moving mail, goods, and produce to and from the suburbs: in the left foreground, a young girl hands an envelope to a mail carrier; this pair is watched by a messenger on his bicycle; and to the right of him, two men load a box into a cart. In the middle ground, three men prepare large bags and boxes for shipment. On the right, a man drives a soon-to-be outmoded horse and cart, while on the left a sleek black locomotive puffing smoke into the blue sky moves across the background. Displayed high on the post attached to the letter box, even the street names—Export Place and Rail Street—reference the transport of goods.

Both Transportation of the Mail and Post Office Work Room portray an element of danger still inherent in the moving of mail, even long after the days of stagecoaches and the Pony Express. After World War I and throughout the 1930s, the country saw an increase in mail robberies by armed gangs. Thus, in 1921, approximately 50,000 surplus military firearms were distributed to railway postal clerks. Crimi also noticed as he observed employees at the New York City Post Office that some of them carried firearms. Therefore, one man in each mural is shown wearing a revolver holster: the man in the front right corner of Transportation of the Mail and the man leaning on the baggage cart in Post Office Work Room.