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Owney, the Railway Mail Dog: Topics in Chronicling America

A canine mascot for the U.S. Postal Service, Owney traveled around the world and even had his own postal stamp. This guide provides access to material related to "Owney" in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers.

Introduction

"Owney, late mascot of the postal service, now mounted at the Smithsonian." July 24, 1927. Evening Star (Washington, DC), Image 65. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.

Owney, the renowned railway mail dog, returns home to New York on Dec. 23, 1895, after his world tour. Owney became famous as he traveled by mail car around the United States and Canada, then by steamer to other countries including Japan, China, Singapore and more! He became a mascot for the postal service and has recently been featured on his own postage stamp. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.

Timeline

1888-1897 Owney travels the country by mail car, becoming an unofficial mascot of the US Railway Mail Service.
August 19- December 23, 1895 Owney boards a steamer and makes his way around the world, departing from Tacoma, Washington and returning to New York.
January 1898 After Owney dies, he is stuffed and given a display at the Smithsonian Postal Museum.