page_title: Postal history
section_title: Transportation based studies
hierarchical_section_title: Postal history / Possible areas of study / Transportation based studies
caption_attribution_description: English: Front of cover from the Bahamas, 1929
context_page_description: Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of the use of postage stamps and covers and associated postal artifacts illustrating historical episodes in the development of postal systems. The term is attributed to Robson Lowe, a professional philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer, who made the first organised study of the subject in the 1930s and described philatelists as "students of science", but postal historians as "students of humanity". More precisely, philatelists describe postal history as the study of rates, routes, markings, and means.
context_section_description: Aerophilately specialises in the study of airmail. Philatelists observe the development of mail transport by air from its beginning, and most aspects of airmail service have been extensively studied and documented by specialists, some of which are individually listed. Crash covers, Imperial Airways Empire route mail to Australia and South Africa, CAM (Contract Air Mail) or FAM (Foreign Air Mail) routes to and from the United States are a few topics.
  Balloon mail was employed during the Siege of Paris to get mail out of the city during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Balloons can be both manned and unmanned but balloon mail is not a common form of mail transport.
  Maritime mail is a theme that offers a wide variety of possibilities. Study of a particular shipping line like, Cunard, P & O, Danube steamers, South American packets or American steamboat mail are a few options as are; Ship Letter marks, mail between a mother country and its colonies or mail between two countries separated by seas or oceans. Many ships applied their own endorsements so collecting examples of all ships of a particular shipping line can be aspired to. Maiden voyages and wreck covers are very desirable. Maritime mail rates changed frequently and occasionally varied for different shipping lines over the same route that could be due to treaty changes or arguments between countries that involved retaliatory rates. Naval mail can also fall in the Military mail category and are also known to apply identifying endorsements or postmarks.
  Railway mail refers to mail carried partly, or fully, by rail transport from its inception in 1830 between Liverpool and Manchester in the UK until its decline in the late 20th century that include Railway letter stamped mail, TPO and RPO handstamps, instructional handstamps or manuscript notations, or even the First Transcontinental Railroad (also mentioned as a geographic study above).
  Rocket mail is the delivery of mail by rocket or missile and is a specialised collecting area of aerophilately called Astrophilately. One of the early famous rocketeers was Stephen Smith, a Secretary of the Indian Airmail Society, who launched 270 rockets between 1934 and 1944 of which 80 contained mail. Other topics for consideration are: USPS rocket mail from 1936 or 1959 launches, Russian submarine-launched rocket mail, or reusable launch vehicle mail.
  Zeppelin mail is a popular topic for the mail carried on the German Zeppelin airships between 1908 and 1939. Much mail exists because up to 12 tons was carried on each flight. Mail from within Germany and from the several trans-Atlantic flights are extant however mail from the famous Hindenburg disaster are very scarce.
caption: First flight cover for Nassau to Miami airmail route in 1929
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