The postal service has changed significantly over the last hundred years. While stamps have changed regularly and services such as airmail and computerized sorting offices have transformed the United States Postal Service into a modern and efficient organization, one aspect has remained constant throughout the last century, and it is something we all use and yet are probably taking for granted – the humble US mailbox.
Most people don’t notice them as they walk past the front of people’s homes, or know of their history when they collect their bills, quotes for courier insurance or junk mail, but the mailbox used by so many American households is distinctive to the United States. No other country uses a mailbox like it and it has a unique place in the history of the United States Postal Service. However, before long, this unique and iconic symbol of the United States may be disappearing from our streets altogether, so perhaps we should all take a little time to celebrate this great American symbol and its place in US history.

The First Mailboxes
When the first postal services began in the US during the nineteenth century, postal carriers delivered mail to home address, it was custom for the mailman to knock on the door and wait for the householder to appear so letters could be handed over personally. This was of course, highly time consuming and frustrating for householders who would not get their mail if they happened to be out. Soon mail slots began appearing in people’s doors, making the life of the mailman easier and service more convenient.
However, the Post Office Department, the forerunner to the United States Postal Service, was always looking to improve efficiency, and realized that mailmen were wasting many hours by having to walk up people’s driveways, especially in rural areas where front doors were some distance from the street. In 1923, to make the delivery system more efficient, the Post Office Department mandated that all homes and business should have a box on the curbside, this would prevent the mailmen from having to walk up to people’s properties and allow fewer workers to deliver more mail. And it was this drive for necessity that instigated the birth of the postal service’s most iconic symbols – the US mailbox.
Joroleman Mailbox
The traditional US mailbox people are familiar with, with its curved, tunnel shape, pull down door and little flag, dates back to 1915. It was the design of US Post Office worker and mechanical engineer Roy Joroleman. His mailbox, still used throughout the country today is one of America’s most underrated design icons and is a demonstration of modern, functionalist design.
Joroleman designed the mailbox in its distinctive tunnel shape to prevent rainwater accumulating on the top, which he reasoned could lead to letters getting wet. The shape also made mass production incredibly simple and inexpensive. Joroleman’s mailbox required only four screws, a couple of rivets and three bolts in its assembly. These properties made it an instant success. It was soon adopted across America, and Canada– before they did away with curbside delivery–and has been the top-selling mailbox design ever since.
Perhaps the most unique feature on Joroleman’s mailbox is the rotating, semaphore flag. This was mounted on a shaft inside the mailbox, and was originally meant as a notification to tell the mailman there were letters to collect. Now, the flag is a signal to tell the homeowner the mail carrier has been, and it is a pretty convenient feature when the weather’s bad and you don’t want to venture outside for no reason.
An End of an Era
It is a sad indictment of the age we live in, that mail theft, identity fraud and vandalism, is leading to the demise of the Joroleman mailbox. In 2001, the United States Postal Service approved designs for a new generation of lockable, steel mailboxes to prevent this increase in mail theft. These steel plate mailboxes, while extremely functional, lack the iconic beauty of the original Joroleman design and its distinctiveness. However, their use is growing in frequency, and along with the rise in communal mailboxes due to more and more people living in apartments, the iconic US mailbox may become consigned to the history books, along with the Pony Express, telegraph, and original Washington stamp.

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