The USPS issued the following press release yesterday:
WASHINGTON, March 14 /PRNewswire/ — Since 1775, the Post Office Department — and later the U.S. Postal Service — has played a major role in American business, politics, journalism, labor, popular culture and social reform. Beginning this year (the 300-year anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, the nation’s first Postmaster General), the Postal Service is sponsoring two annual prizes for scholarship that highlight this rich history.
The Moroney Awards for Scholarship on Postal History feature a junior prize of $1,000 for scholarship written or published by undergraduates or graduate students, and a senior prize of $2,000 for scholarship published by faculty members, independent scholars, public historians and other non-degree candidates. Submissions for both awards must be postmarked by December 1, 2006 and award winners will be announced by February 15, 2007.
The scholarship can be on any topic of the American postal system from the colonial era to the present — including the history of the imperial postal system that preceded the establishment of the American postal system in 1775. Though submissions must be historical in character, they can draw on the methods of disciplines other than history, including geography, cultural studies, literature, communications or economics.
The awards honor Rita Lloyd Moroney, who began conducting historical research for the Postmaster General in 1962 and then served as Historian of the U.S. Postal Service from 1973 to 1991. Besides encouraging scholarship on the history of the American postal system, the prizes are designed to raise awareness about the significance of the postal system in American life. Award eligibility requirements, selection criteria and other information is available at http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/moroney.htm
Since 1775, the Postal Service and its predecessor, the Post Office Department, has connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. It is an independent federal agency that visits more than 144 million homes and businesses every day and is the only service provider delivering to every address in the nation. The Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of $70 billion, it is the world’s leading provider of mailing and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world. The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than 46 percent of the world’s mail volume — some 212 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year — and serves seven million customers each day at its 37,000 retail locations nationwide.
