Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was not unfamiliar with the postal service when the Continental Congress appointed him postmaster general in July 1775. Nearly forty years earlier, in 1737, the British Crown Post named Franklin postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737. In this capacity, his responsibilities included deciding which newspapers to circulate, surveying post offices and roads, and tending to the financial needs of individual offices. During this tenure he also improved the office's accounting practices, lobbied for mail carriers to deliver mail during the day and the night time, and establish a local "penny post," a service that delivered pieces of mail within a strict radius for a penny each.

Franklin remained Philadelphia's postmaster until 1774 when his sympathies for the American colonies caused him to be dismissed from the position by the Crown. When he became America's first postmaster general in 1775, he oversaw post offices in all the colonies and was given the power to hire postmasters.

While HSP holds a collection of Franklin's letters and other material (#215), numerous things from and about him can be found in many of our collections. For more information on Franklin as postmaster general see The Ledger of Doctor Benjamin Franklin: Postmaster General, 1776 (call number Biog. F8245u 1970) and Sarah Cresson transcriptions of James Parker letters and Documents (Am .0683).