Uniformed letter carrier with mailbag
"Letter-Carrier"

During the Civil War, the U.S. Postal Service began free delivery in 49 of America's cities. Before that, people had to either pick up their mail at the post office, or pay for each home delivery. Letter carriers began wearing uniforms -- blue-gray sack coats and pants -- in 1868. They delivered Montgomery Ward's first mail-order catalog -- a single sheet -- in 1872. By 1895, the catalogs that letter carriers toted in their big leather satchels weighed four pounds apiece.