National Association of Letter Carriers

Our history NALC The NALC maintains an Information Center in its headquarters in Washington, DC. Assets include Postal Records and other union publications, along with vertical files on union history and letter carrier–related topics. While its primary purpose is to support union officers and staff, it is open to interested members of the public by appointment. Contact the Information Center by writing to Information Center, NALC, 100 Indiana Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20001-2144. For more information on the history of the union, you can read Carriers in a Common Cause, the NALC’s official history. The book tells the story of the struggle by letter carriers, from the birth of the Postal Service in 1775 to today. The union’s official archives have been housed in the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University in Detroit since 2001 and are open to the public. Visitors to Reuther can consult the papers of past presidents Rademacher, Vacca, Sombrotto and Young, along with records of other national officers and headquarters staff. Videos and photographic images are also available. The Reuther archives are open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Reuther website explains the procedure for conducting research at the library, and includes abstracts and finding aids for the various NALC collections. Some photographic images can be retrieved directly from the website. As NALC historical records are not available in a digital format, interested researchers must visit Reuther in person to access the collection. Walter P. Reuther Library | Wayne State University | 5401 Cass Ave. | Detroit, MI 48202 Genealogy The NALC does not maintain records of individuals who may have belonged to the union or worked as a letter carrier in the past, so it generally cannot assist in genealogical research. The same limitations apply to the union’s archival holdings at the Reuther in Detroit. Pay and personnel records of individual letter carriers beginning in 1901 can sometimes be obtained from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. For those interested in letter carriers who worked in the 19th century, the National Archives has produced Record Cards of Letter Carriers Separated from the Postal Service, 1863-1899 (Microfilm Publication M1846). U.S. Postal Service Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general in what is now the United States, appointed by the Continental Congress in 1775. Since then, the history of the Postal Service has been interwoven with that of the country it serves. Persons wishing to explore what is available through official government records about the Postal Service and its history should consult Sources of Historical Information on Post Offices, Postal Employees, Mail Routes and Mail Contractors (Publication 119). This USPS publication provides an excellent overview of what historical information is available and how and where specific items can be accessed. The Beginning Find out how letter carriers worked together to form the NALC. Branch Charters Information on branch charters and the order in which branches were added to the NALC.