This web page, published by the Military Postal History Society, contains the text content of the single frame American Mail Agencies in Latin America exhibit pages created by the late Al Kugel. This exhibit was created by, and is the property of the late Al Kugel, and is being supplied by his heirs as a courtesy to the Military Postal History Society.
In an effort to increase the efficiency of mail handling, especially for letters destined for addressees in the United States, the U.S. Post Office Department entered into arrangements by which our postal employees would be stationed in certain foreign countries. Efforts in this regard reportedly started in the middle of the 19th Century in Aspenwall (now Colon) and Panama City before the Panama Canal was built. A mail agency has also been reported in Havana, Cuba during the Spanish colonial period. Unfortunately, there are no known postal markings found on mail from these efforts. However, after Cuba became independent, a U.S. mail agency did operate in Havana, with postmarks having been recorded from 1922 to 1935.
To view the exhibit page images, see: web page containing the image content of the exhibit frame.
Updated 4/10/2023
In an effort to increase the efficiency of mail handling, especially for letters destined for addressees in the United States, the U.S. Post Office Department entered into arrangements by which our postal employees would be stationed in certain foreign countries. Efforts in this regard reportedly started in the middle of the 19th Century in Aspenwall (now Colon) and Panama City before the Panama Canal was built. A mail agency has also been reported in Havana, Cuba during the Spanish colonial period. Unfortunately, there are no known postal markings found on mail from these efforts. However, after Cuba became independent, a U.S. mail agency did operate in Havana, with postmarks having been recorded from 1922 to 1935.
The most widely known mail agencies in Latin America were those in Barranquilla and Cali, Colombia, starting in 1936 and operating into early 1942. In these cases, the primary motivation was to increase the speed by which airmail could travel from South America to the United States. The agreement with Colombia did not permit these agencies to sell stamps or cancel mail, except that backstamps could be applied to registered airmail transiting the country.
This system worked because the planes at the time did not have sufficient range to fly to the U.S. directly. Thus, those carrying airmail from South America would overnight in Colombia, during which time the employees at the agencies would resort the letters and place them in bags ready for despatch on the proper route the next day. Later, of course, the use of longer-range aircraft made a stop in Colombia unnecessary, so this activity was discontinued.
Proof strike of a postmark and killer prepared for use at a U.S. Postal Agency in Panama. It is believed to date back to the 1880s. One other example of such a proof strike has been reported by Robert Markovits.
The material in this exhibit is generally quite elusive and has taken more than a decade to assemble. The covers will be shown in essentially chronological order, with the examples from the agency in Havana first, followed by Barranquilla and then Cali.
CUBA U.S. Postal Agency, Havana
A United States Mail Agency was established at Havana, Cuba, effective December 1, 1921, with James H. Knox
being appointed the first postal agent in charge. The principal function of this agency was to coordinate the
transfer of mail from steamers arriving in Havana to others destined for the U.S. In the early period, such letters
were placed on other steamships bound for Florida; later, transfer of mail to be carried on aircraft was involved.
Robert Gordon reported that although the agency was in operation from 1921 until 1946, examples of the its
postrmark "exist in very tiny quantities.”
U.S. Postal Agency, Havana, Cuba
April 8, 1922
This recently discovered cover bears the earliest reported example of the Havana Agency postmark, being about six years earlier than previously known.
CUBA U.S. Postal Agency, Havana, Cuba
U.S. Postal Agency, Havana February 13, 1928
This cover was sent by Postal Agent Knox on the Farewell Lindbergh flight from Havana to Key West. It is franked with the special "Lindbergh" commemorative and has both the U.S. Agency postmark and the Cuban postmark of February 13. Backstamped for receipt in Key West on the same day.
CUBA U.S. Postal Agency, Havana, Cuba
U.S. Postal Agency, Havana August 7, 1930
This philatelic cover was posted at the U.S. Postal Agency on August 7, 1930, although the year date was added in ink. Presumably routed to Key West, it received the Jacksonville & Key West R.P.O. marking on the following day.
CUBA U.S. Postal Agency, Havana, Cuba
U.S. Postal Agency, Havana August 29, 1934
A philatelic cover handled by the U.S. Postal Agency on August 29, 1934. Although there was no year date in the cds in the later years, there are Cuban and U.S. naval cancels on the obverse of the same date. The latest recorded Agency postmark is less than a year later on July 26, 1935.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
A United States Mail Agency was established on July 19, 1936 at Barranquilla, the chief commercial center of the country, located at the mouth of the Magdalena River in northwestern Colombia. The role of this agency was to speed the processing of airmail being flown by Pan Am between Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States. Messrs. U. H. Parrish and H. V. Steinhart were sent from the post office in Miami to serve as agents in charge. The agency operated only until July 14, 1937 when a change in flight schedules made it more convenient to shift the processing of airmail to Cristobal in the Canal Zone.
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
August 9, 1936
The first marking used on mail from this agency was obtained locally by Mr. Parrish before leaving Miami. It was inscribed "U.S. Postal Agency-BARRANQUILLA, COL. S.A." with the date on a second line and "U. H. PARRISH" on a third. The example shown was used as a transit marking on a cover to Columbia SC mailed from London to Germany then carried by the Airship Hindenburg to the U.S. However, it was missent to the country of Colombia where it was postmarked on arrival on August 6 by the local authorities in Barranquilla. The letter was then turned over to the U.S. Postal Agency to be returned to the United States. An extraordinary use of this extremely elusive marking.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
The purpose behind the creation of this agency was to allow the processing of registered airmail to and from the United States to be sorted while aircraft made overnight stopovers at Barranquilla. On this basis, such mail was offloaded, backstamped, sorted into bundles and flown to Cristobal in the Canal Zone early the next morning. There, the bundles would be placed aboard appropriate Pan Am planes leaving for various destinations. It should be noted that the agency was not a post office, did not sell stamps and did not accept mail from the public. Thus, even the personal mail of the agents had to be sent through the normal Colombian postal service.
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
August 2, 1936
The normal postal marking used on mail from this agency was a typical double-circle cancel provided for use on registered mail by the U.S. Postal Service. This device was inscribed "U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla, Colombia./Registered." The above example is an early usage, applied to the reverse of an official registered cover from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lima to the Peruvian General Consulate in Melbourne, Australia just two weeks after the opening of the agency.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
Although the bulk of the mail processed in Barranquilla was sent from South America to the United States, some, went elsewhere. The cover below is, thus, very unusual in that it traveled from La Paz, Bolivia to Mainz, Germany. At the time, the Germans had strict currency controls, so the letter was opened by the customs office and resealed with special labels.
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
November 15, 1936
Considering the apparent efficiency of the mail moving northbound from Barranquilla to the U.S., it seems that the service didn't work as well to Europe. At least, there was a nine-day transit time from Colombia to Germany for this letter even though it cost 4.65 bolivianos in postage.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
Based on examples known to exhibitor, mail moving from Bolivia and Peru to the United States is seen most, often. The service on such covers was exceptionally efficient based on the one day transit time from Barranquilla to the entry point in the U.S., as shown on the covers below.
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
August 19, 1936
March 7, 1937
Upper cover sent from Lima, Peru arrived in Barranquilla two days later and was in New York on the third day, which seems much faster than would be the case today. Lower cover took five days from La Paz, Bolivia to Barranquilla but only one more day to arrive in Cleveland.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
When Pan Am again changed its schedules in the summer of 1937, it became more efficient to do the overnight processing in Cristobal. As a result, the Barranquilla agency was closed down on July 14, 1937 after just under one year in operation.
U.S. Postal Agency, Barranquilla
July 7, 1937
The above example of the double-circle registration marking is a very late usage, applied to the reverse of a commercial registered cover from Montevideo, Uruguay to Kansas City MO. The backstamp is dated just one week before the agency closed.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Cali
On September 1, 1940, a United States Mail Agency was established at Cali, a city on the western side of Colombia, not far north of the Ecuadorian border, using staff from the Canal Zone. This agency sorted registered airmail overnight for Z onward transmission. However, this operation proved expensive, and operations were shifted back to Cristobal, with the agency closing on January 31, 1942 after a little more than a year in operation.
US Postal Agency, Cali
September 25, 1940
Two postmarks were used at Cali. The one normally encountered had two double circles, each with a thicker and thinner version. It was inscribed “U.S. Postal Agency, Cali, Columbia/Registered.” This example was backstamped on a cover from the Grace Line’s SS. Flying Cloud at Callao, Peru to headquarters in San Francisco.
COLOMBIA
US. Postal Agency, Cali
The great bulk of the mail being handled by the sorting office in Cali was in transit from South America to the
United States, some from as far south as Argentina and Chile. Examples shown below originated in Argentina,
Colombia and Peru.
US. Postal Agency, Cali
January 22, 1941
February 3, 1941
March 12, 1941
As can be seen from the backstamps, the transit time from Cali to the entry point in the U.S. was two days, ie. the mail left the next day and was processed on arrival the second day.
COLOMBIA U.S. Postal Agency, Cali
U.S. Postal Agency, Cali April 9, 1941
Until the U.S. entered the war, a small quantity of mail was sent from Axis and Axis-occupied countries to the U.S. via the Italian airline, LATI, via South America in order to avoid British censorship.
This example of a heavy (69 grams) registered airmail cover from Leipzig, Germany to Washington, D.C. paid RM 31.10 in postage (some on the obverse). This covered the basic UPU letter rate of 25 pf. for 20 grams plus 15 pf. for 3 additional 20 gram steps, plus 30 pf. for registration. In addition, the airmail surcharge via LATI was RM 2.15 for each 5 grams or RM 30.10 in total.
Note that the Cali postmark seems to have "U.S. Postal Agency" excised, which is likely a misstrike of some kind as such a marking is not so described in the literature or seen elsewhere.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Cali
The second type of postmark for the Cali Agency was a similar quadruple-circle device. However, it was inscribed "Airmail" at the bottom of the dial instead of "Registered." However, it was rarely used, and only two examples have been recorded. The original find of this strike was on a Bulletin of Verification (concerning mail weight discrepancies) in the Canal Zone files; it is dated June 30, 1941. The other strike is shown here.
US. Postal Agency, Cali
July 6, 1941
The discovery example of a cover with the "Air Mail" marking of the Cali Agency. This office did not stock U.S. stamps and the use of Colombian postage was required, even on mail sent by our postal agents. This cover sent to a bank in Palm Beach, Florida by one of the clerks was, thus, in accord with the regulations.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Cali
One explanation for why examples of the agency postmarks are relatively elusive is that when despatching offices either in the U.S. or Latin America had a sufficient number of articles, these would be placed in containers, on which only the transit slip would be postmarked, not the individual covers. Thus, many (perhaps most) registered airmail covers that were processed through the agency in the relevant period didn't receive backstamps.
U.S. Postal Agency, Cali
January 26, 1942
The above example of the quadruple-circle registration marking is a very late usage, applied to the reverse of a commercial registered cover from a mining company in Oruro, Bolivia to New York City. This backstamp is dated just six days before the agency closed. (There is no apparent explanation why this cover was not censored; perhaps the necessary arrangements had not yet been completed at the time. )
Earlier versions of this postmark tend to be a rose color, whereas the later versions are a darker purple. It appears that a new ink pad was sent to Cali in March 1941, thus providing a color closer to that in general use in the U.S.
COLOMBIA
U.S. Postal Agency, Cali
U.S. Postal Agency, Cali
May 24, 1941
Only one auxiliary marking is known from the Cali mail processing station. It was applied to letters that had been incorrectly sent to that agency. As shown above, it was a two-line handstamp inscribed "Missent to U.S. Postal Agency, Cali, Colombia". An extremely elusive postal marking, with only a couple of examples recorded.