G4901

Owney - The Postal Dog

Owney's Medals & Tags - Owney and Locomotive cachet

Owney was a scruffy mutt who became a regular fixture at the Albany, New York, post office in 1888. The Railway Mail Service clerks adopted Owney as their unofficial mascot.

Collins Cover Announcement 

OWNEY

The "Good Luck" Postal Dog

Mascot of the Railway Mail Service

In 1888 the snail clerks at the Albany, New York Post Office adopted a homeless, mixed breed dog. They named him Owney and grew very fond of their new pet. Owney loved to cuddle up on piles of old mail bags, and that was where the clerks could usually find him. Soon the small dog was riding among the mail bags on the wagons that transported them from the post office to the railroad depot. Next Owney was accompanying mail bags on trains between Albany and other cities. He gradually took trips farther and farther away from home, and soon he be-Came the faitlifur mascot of Ainerica'S-railway mâil clerks:During the 1890s, Owney -had become the most famous dog in the United States.

The mail clerks in Albany still had deep affection for Owney, and they made a simple harness for him on which postal employees could attach metal or leather tags that would record his journeys. Occasionally when the harness became too heavy, mail clerks would remove some tags and send them to Albany for safekeeping. Because of their thoughtfulness, the collection survives to this day. On August 19, 1895, Owney left Seattle, Washington for a goodwill visit to Japan and China. He then visited Singapore, Suez, Algiers, and the Azores on his around-the-world journey. Afterwards he got a new tag inscribed "Owney the Globe Trotter — 1896." This amazing dog was eventually preserved by a taxidermist and in 1911 was given to the Smithsonian. Today Owney resides at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC.

My individually hand painted cachet shows the famous mascot at a train station with some of his travel tags. Steaming by is engine 999 which was actually built in Albany, New York in 1893. Accordingly, this locomotive is a great geographic and time period link to the "Good Luck" railway dog. The completed watercolored cachet is a really beautiful First Day Cover and a great philatelic remembrance of the traveling canine as he rode the rails on his many mail bag beds. The incredible railway mascot — Owney — Collins #G4901 at $14.00.