The Stray Who Rode the Mail Around the World

In 1888 a shaggy stray terrier wandered into the post office in Albany, New York. The clerks let him stay the night, and he fell asleep on a pile of empty mailbags. Then he started following the bags: onto the mail wagons, then onto the mail trains, riding Railway Post Office cars across the state and then across the country. The railway mail clerks made him their mascot, and his name was Owney.

Clerks marked his travels by putting medals and tags from his stops on his collar. They considered him good luck, because no train he rode on was ever in a wreck. In time the tags weighed him down, so Postmaster General John Wanamaker gave him a jacket to spread their weight. In the words of the USPS blog, Wanamaker “presented Owney with a little jacket to distribute their weight more evenly.”

On August 19, 1895, Owney left Tacoma, Washington, and went around the world on mail steamers and trains, about four months in all. By the end, he had more than a thousand tags and medals.

On June 11, 1897, in Toledo, Ohio, old and ill, he reportedly bit a clerk and was put down. The clerks refused to bury him. Railway mail clerks chipped in to have him preserved by a taxidermist, and in 1911 he went to the Smithsonian. Since 1993 he has been on display at the National Postal Museum, still wearing his jacket of tags. On July 27, 2011, the Postal Service issued an Owney the Postal Dog Forever stamp.

Watch on YouTubeSources and photo credits are below.

Fact check

The facts and where they come from

Owney was a stray who wandered into the Albany, New York post office in 1888; the clerks let him stay the night, and he fell asleep on a pile of empty mailbags (the Smithsonian’s own description of its Owney photographs). USPS Postal Facts: “On an autumn day in 1888, a shaggy pup … crept into the Albany, NY, Post Office. Postal employees allowed him to stay.” 1 2
He was a shaggy terrier mix. 3 2
He followed the mailbags onto mail wagons and then mail trains, and rode Railway Post Office cars across the state and then the country. 1 3
Clerks marked his travels by putting medals and tags from his stops on his collar. USPS: “clerks affixed medals and tags to his collar to document his travels.” 1 4
Clerks considered him good luck, because no train he rode on was ever in a wreck. 3
The tags weighed him down, so Postmaster General John Wanamaker (in office 1889–1893) gave him a jacket to spread their weight. The USPS blog: he “presented Owney with a little jacket to distribute their weight more evenly.” The 2011 USPS release calls it “a special harness to display them all.” 2 5 4
On August 19, 1895, he left Tacoma, Washington, and went around the world on mail steamers and trains, about four months in all. USPS Postal Facts gives the route as reportedly taking in Japan, China, Singapore, Suez, Algiers and the Azores; the USPS blog says he “once even circled the globe.” 3 2 5
By the end he had more than a thousand tags and medals: “over 1,000 medals and tags” (USPS blog). Wikipedia cites one source counting 1,017 medals and tokens and says “the exact number is unknown.” 5 3
On June 11, 1897, in Toledo, Ohio, old and ill, he reportedly bit a clerk and was put down. USPS Postal Facts: “Owney bit the clerk who was handling him. The postmaster had Owney put down on June 11, 1897.” Wikipedia: “Owney had been ill and had become aggressive in his old age”; he allegedly attacked a postal clerk and a U.S. Marshal, and was “shot and killed on the orders of the local postmaster.” 2 3
The clerks refused to bury him: “Postal clerks refused to bury their beloved mascot” (Wikipedia). 3
Railway mail clerks chipped in to have him preserved by a taxidermist. 5 2
He went to the Smithsonian in 1911 and has been on display at the National Postal Museum since 1993, in his jacket of tags. 2 5
On July 27, 2011, the Postal Service issued an Owney the Postal Dog Forever stamp. 4 3
Albany’s post office in his day was the US Government Building at Broadway and State, built 1879–1883 as primarily a post office (the photo of it is from c. 1900–06). 6

Sources

Owney (photo record and description) Smithsonian Institution (Flickr Commons)
Owney, the postal dog U.S. Postal Facts (USPS)
Owney (dog) Wikipedia
Postal Railway Mascot Gets Stamp of Approval (2011) USPS News
The History of Owney the Postal Dog, Mascot of the Railway Mail Service Postal Posts (USPS blog)
Old Post Office (Albany, New York) Wikipedia

Notes

Stray or not: the Smithsonian and USPS call him a stray who wandered in; Wikipedia also gives an account that he belonged to a clerk who brought him to work. We follow the Smithsonian and USPS.

Jacket or harness: USPS Postal Facts and the USPS blog say jacket; the 2011 USPS press release says harness. We say jacket.

How he died is unclear. Accounts say he was old and ill; he allegedly bit a clerk (some add a US Marshal), possibly after a clerk chained him to show him to a reporter; he was shot on the local postmaster’s orders. We say only that he reportedly bit a clerk and was put down, USPS’s own wording.

The number of tags is 1,017 in one source and “over 1,000” in USPS; the National Postal Museum holds 372. We say more than a thousand.

The start of the world trip (Tacoma, August 19, 1895) is agreed; the end date (New York on December 23, or Tacoma on December 29) and whether he crossed Europe differ, so we give no end date or route.

The 2011 stamp is not shown: US stamps issued after 1978 are copyrighted by USPS.

Every dog shown is Owney himself; the 2011 photos show his preserved body at the Smithsonian. The Albany post office photo shows the building he walked into, taken c. 1900–06; the Railway Post Office car is from 1905, the kind he rode; the Tacoma photo shows the waterfront in 1892, not his ship.

Photo credits

The archive photos in this story

All the photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, music, captions and graphics in the Short are our own.