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Paul Nelson out

Paul Nelson out Read More »

Lisa at St. Lukes

Lisa at St. Lukes Read More »

Library closed for improvements

Library closed for improvements Read More »

Annual volunteer luncheon and meeting

Invitations have been sent to volunteers and members.

Annual volunteer luncheon and meeting Read More »

Board meeting

For PHF board of directors only. Agendas have already been sent to directors.

Board meeting Read More »

Twin Peaks Elementary Literacy and Fine Arts Night

Twin Peaks Elementary Literacy and Fine Arts Night Read More »

Library closed 12-1

Library closed 12-1 Read More »

Visit from Poetry Center librarian

Library will be closed 12-1.

Visit from Poetry Center librarian Read More »

Tucson Stamp Club spring auction

Viewing at 12. Auction starts promptly at 1. Auctioneer: Dan Sherry.

Tucson Stamp Club spring auction Read More »

Tucson Civil War Roundtable (library reservation)

Program: British Influence in Civil War by Joel Unowski. If you are interested in attending, please arrive a little before 11:30 and introduce yourself to the roundtable chairman, Bob Burdick.

Tucson Civil War Roundtable (library reservation) Read More »

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920 N 1st Ave Tucson AZ 85719
P 520-623-6652
E info@phftucson.org

The Postal History Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting people to postal history, philately, and the world of stamps to inspire curiosity and encourage the enjoyment of life-long learning.

Copyright © 2013-2025 Postal History Foundation

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Our website is experiencing technical difficulties. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you’re having trouble placing an education order, please contact Lisa Dembowski at education@phftucson.org or 520-623-6652 X102 for assistance. Dismiss

George Washington Carver

Percy Lavon Julian

Charles R. Drew

Jan E. Matzeliger

George Washington Carver

Henry Ossawa Tanner

Robert Robinson Taylor

Henry Ossawa Tanner

Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable

Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable

Anna Julia Cooper

Booker T. Washington

Mary McLeod Bethune

Frederick Douglass

C Alfred "Chief" Anderson

Matthew Henson (with Robert E. Peary)

C Alfred "Chief" Anderson

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Carter G. Woodson

Whitney Moore Young

Sojourner Truth

A. Philip Randolph

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.

Shirley Chisholm

Patricia Robert Harris

Clifton R. Wharton, Sr.

Thurgood Marshall

Shirley Chisholm

Benjamin Banneker

John H. Johnson

Madame C.J. Walker

Benjamin Banneker

Hattie McDaniel

Hattie McDaniel

Jackie Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson

Wilt Chamberlain

Jackie Robinson

Gwendolyn Brooks

Charles W. Chestnut

Carter G. Woodson

James Weldon Johnson

Zora Neal Hurston

Langston Hughes

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Music Legends

Coleman Hawkins

Dinah Washington

Jelly Roll Morton

Louis Armstrong

Musicians

Thelonious Monk

Clyde McPhatter

James R. Johnson

Singers and Songwriters

Ella Fitzgerald

Mahalia Jackson

Marian Anderson

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Ella Fitzgerald

Katherine Dunham

United States philately, 1969

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Worldwide philately, 1969

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Commemorations of the 1969 moon landing

Click image to enlarge.

Letters from Home

“Another week gone and no newsman yet. These months—years perhaps—will to a certain extent be a blank to us. We know nothing of what is going on the states, nothing of the political maneuvers. President’s messages, doings of Congress, elections of senators and assemblymen and the thousand and one maneuvers of the day, riots, mobs, fires, rail-road accidents—in fact I shall be a kind of Rip van Winkle & it will require the first ten years after returning to learn what has taken place while away.”

–Letter from A.W. Genung in Curtissville, San Joaquin District to “Woodward,” Dec 16, 1849, from James W. Milgram’s The Western Mails.

Postcard postmarked Oatman, 1911

Cover postmarked Bisbee, Arizona, 1900

Cover postmarked Florence, Arizona, 1876

Postcard picturing Jerome, Arizona

Life in the Old West

Imagine leaving everything and everyone you know and moving across the country to live in the wilderness, hoping to make your fortune in gold, silver, or copper. Living 1000 miles or more away from home, the only way to talk to your family and friends, and the only way to know what was happening outside your immediate vicinity, was through letters and newspapers: the mail.

Postcard depicting man outside a cabin in Prescott

Promotional postcard from Globe depicting two men and a child at water pump

Image of teacher and students at Mayer school

Postcard depicting a prospector sifting with a rocker box

Mules, Wagons, and Well-Worn Routes

Mail, including letters, supplies, and goods, was often freighted in by steamship from San Francisco to the port of Yuma. From there, items either continued up river or were loaded onto wagons, coaches, and pack animals and taken out to towns and camps.

The stage lines and buckboard lines that carried mail and supplies also transported passengers on a regular basis between towns, sometimes requiring at least one overnight stay. These vehicles were extraordinarily uncomfortable, however. After making the much longer overland (cross-country) trip on stagecoach, journalist Waterman L. Ormsby famously said, “I NOW KNOW WHAT HELL IS LIKE. I’VE JUST HAD 24 DAYS OF IT.”

Cleator, Arizona, undated photograph

“Prospector on the Desert” unused postcard

Wilcox, Arizona, 1915, undated photograph

“For All Points Along the Colorado River”

Steamers left San Francisco for the Gulf of California every 20 days and then traveled up the Colorado River. The port at Yuma was a major artery in the delivery of supplies to Arizona.

The steamboats transported not only mail and goods, but also people. In 1874 Martha Summerhayes traveled on the steamboat Gila from Fort Yuma to Fort Mohave. In her book Vanished Arizona, she describes the conditions:

The staterooms “were always stuffy and noisy, and in the summer they were so suffocatingly hot.” In the dining room, “the metal handles of the knives were uncomfortably warm to the touch; and even the wooden arms of the chairs felt as if they were slowly igniting… A siesta was out of the question, as the staterooms were insufferable; and so we dragged out the weary days.”

Postcard postmarked 1910 depicting the Yuma landing on the Colorado River

Unused and undated postcard depicting the Yuma landing on the Colorado River

Colorado Steam Navigation Company advertisement

“Fastest Time and Best Stock”

Entrepreneurs from the Tucson area, such as Pinchney Tully, Estevan Ochoa, Pedro Aguirre, Mariano Samaniego, J.D. Kinnear, and William “Curly” Neal, provided much- needed services between short distances.

Tuffy Peach delivered mail on horseback three times a week between Camp Verde and Payson from 1910-1914. His route was 52 miles long, lasted 11 hours, and required one change of horse. When interviewed by the Arizona Philatelist in 1968, he described his work:

“I often had mail piled so high in front of me that I could hardly see where my horse was treading… “But, gosh, those horses knew the mail route better than the dispatch riders. We couldn’t get lost if we tried. Our horses wouldn’t let us.”

Clinton “Tuffy” Peach, Arizona Philatelist article, January 1968. Tuffy Peach delivered mail on horseback to and from Camp Verde, Arizona and Payson, Arizona from 1910-1914.

Pedro Aguirre unused cover.

Advertisement for Walker and Kinnear’s stage company.

Photograph of stage outside Hotel Nobles.

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