On July 26, 2025, the United States Postal Service (USPS) marked a historic milestone: 250 years of mail delivery across the country.
Founded by the Second Continental Congress on July 26, 1775, the American postal system predates the U.S. Declaration of Independence by nearly a year. Its first postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin, helped lay the foundation for what would become one of the world’s largest and most enduring mail services.
To commemorate the occasion, USPS released two major philatelic products and hosted a first-day-of-issue ceremony on July 23 in Washington, D.C. The event featured remarks from Postmaster General David Steiner, USPS Board of Governors chair Amber McReynolds, and a costumed actor portraying Franklin himself.
Benjamin Franklin, appointed the first Postmaster General in 1775, is honoured in the USPS’s 250th anniversary stamp booklet with a modern reinterpretation of the original 1847 five-cent issue.
The first release, 250 Years of Delivering, was a pane of 20 interconnected Forever stamps that illustrated a mail carrier’s journey through an urban neighbourhood across the four seasons. Designed by Chicago cartoonist Chris Ware, with art direction by Antonio Alcalá, the 4×5 stamp grid offered a continuous narrative portraying a full year in the life of U.S. mail delivery. Ware, known for his graphic novels and New Yorker covers, layered the pane with historical references and visual storytelling details. The stamp pane was priced at $15.60 USD, reflecting the new 78-cent first-class rate introduced on July 13.
The second product was a 32-page prestige booklet titled Putting a Stamp on the American Experience—only the fourth of its kind ever issued by USPS. Designed by art director Ethel Kessler, the booklet featured thematic essays on topics such as nature, sports, and national parks, alongside two exclusive panes with self-adhesive reproductions of the iconic 1847 five-cent Benjamin Franklin stamp. The design was inspired by an 1875 reprint, reimagined for the modern collector.
“These stamps will serve as a window into our shared history,” said Steiner during the July 23 ceremony, according to the USPS Newsroom. “They represent enduring values – perseverance, trust and imagination.”
USPS celebrated the semiquincentennial under the official theme “Connecting Communities. Empowering Commerce. Delivering for America.” The slogan captured the service’s transformation from a colonial courier network into a high-tech, self-funded public agency with a constitutionally mandated duty to serve all Americans.
The milestone also highlighted USPS’s technological and cultural legacy. Among its innovations were rural free delivery (1902), ZIP codes (1963), and the early adoption of optical character recognition (OCR) systems for automated sorting. Brief but iconic initiatives like the Pony Express remain legendary.
Writing in The Verge, tech journalist Sean Hollister credited USPS with developing early technologies that anticipated today’s barcode scanning, address reading, and remote tracking systems used worldwide.
Despite challenges—ranging from financial pressures and digital disruption to pandemic-era logistical demands—USPS continues to be ranked among America’s most trusted public institutions. Its workforce of more than 635,000 employees serves nearly 169 million addresses, as reported by The Associated Press.
Looking ahead, USPS has committed to a 10-year strategic plan, Delivering for America, aimed at modernizing operations, reducing delivery times, and reaffirming its public relevance for future generations.
Collectors interested in the 250th-anniversary issues can find both products—along with related merchandise—online at usps.com/250 or at participating U.S. postal outlets.
Sources: Associated Press, The Verge, USPS Newsroom, Block Club Chicago, The Sun, Wikipedia.