Have you ever thought about the mailing envelope? About its history and how it came to be? Rarely do we consider the origins of those items we use each and every day, how those items came to be a part of our daily lives.
The idea of transferring a message from one spot to another and finding a way to ensure it was read only by the intended recipient has probably been around since the beginning of time, or soon thereafter. Still, mailing envelopes, as we know them today, were basically unheard of until mid 19th century. Prior to this, mailing envelopes were handmade and literally part of the letter—all in one. The letter would be folded in two and then a wax seal would enclose the message away from the prying eyes of the general public. This required that a certain color of wax be affixed to where the ends would meet. A distinctive seal was stamped into the molten wax. Both the wax color and the seal uniquely identified the sender . . . in a way, this was the early precursor to modern return address labels.
When the message was delivered with the wax seal unbroken, the recipient could be sure that the letter had not been opened prior to its receipt. This was the rough version, the earliest style of mailing envelopes. As time passed and improvements were made, hand-made versions of stand-alone mailing envelopes were commonplace.
This, however, doesn’t count in the much-earlier ingenuity and creativity of Louis XIV who, before this, in his time and in his area of the world, popularized the use of a cover to ensure the complete privacy of his letters. Louis had his secretary cut out forms with a template, and fold and paste them to make envelopes for his communications to his court.
In the mid-1800s, the first patent was passed for a machine that would manufacture mailing envelopes. The French-developed Rabbate was a foot-powered machine which created mailing envelopes. The Rabbate was capable of turning out more than 100 pieces an hour. The development of envelope-making machinery led to mass production; that along with wide-sweeping and ongoing international postal reforms suddenly made postage affordable to everyone. Manufacturers still, however, were not able turn out enough mailing envelopes to handle the public’s demand, and many people persisted in just folding up letters and sending them uncovered.
Still, the creation of machinery to mass produce mailing envelopes had revolutionized the industry in general, despite the fact that there were still clear-cut glitches to be overcome before the full-scale production of mailing envelopes could become commonplace. In addition to the problems of production not keeping up with demand, there was an issue with the sizing of manufactured mailing envelopes. They had to be cut before they could be fed into the machine to form the rectangle design which was then sealed with a paste.
Eventually the British government took monopoly control of their postal service which, in turn, helped to move along the history of mailing envelopes. This ultimately brought about full-scale distribution of the diamond design mailing envelopes, as well as the very first adhesive stamp, called the Penny Black. These mailing envelopes were initially nothing more than a simple, crudely-made decorative wrapping, something of a marketing gimmick complete with illustrations. Unfortunately, these illustrations were not taken seriously and the first line of mailing envelopes was recalled. They were then remade with a different set of illustrations, with a bit more success second time around.
One reason for the holdup in progress—gum was still being applied to these mailing envelopes by hand. Eventually, apparatus called drying machines came into being and solved that sticky problem. Later on, more creative geniuses invented ways to vary the sizes of the mailing envelopes which were produced. Mail was definitely in business, and it had become a business all unto itself.
During the Civil War, Confederates had difficulty getting paper for mailing envelopes, which they had previously easily imported from the North or from England. When the blockade tightened, they were forced to use wallpaper and book pages and other assorted papers, all of which today are valued by collectors. Sometimes the mailing envelopes would be turned inside out for reuse. Handmade or not, some mailing envelopes were utilized by both sides in the war as propaganda, with patriotic slogans and drawings added to cover most of the face of the mailing envelopes. Even before the war, merchants had begun putting ads on envelopes. Envelope decoration had already proved to have a history of excess, and this just underscored humanity’s creativity, and the early awareness of marketing as a tool to get a point across.
In general, the usefulness of the wrapper-type mailing envelopes, not dependent on any particular style of decorations, was realized en masse. Mailing envelopes made it easy to enclose messages and affix a stamp, which meant that the piece of mail already had postage paid. The senders could feel safe in the knowledge that their mailing envelopes, and the messages within, would be delivered to their intended recipients without outside interference. The popularity of these diamond shaped wrappers, becoming known in general as mailing envelopes, spread around the globe. Thus, the foundations for modern mailing envelopes as we now know them were born.
The styles of mailing envelopes to this day have remained strikingly similar to the original diamond design. The most marked changes have been in the technical manufacture of mailing envelopes. Modern designs have clarified requirements in most developed countries, and corresponding postal machines have been developed to produce mailing envelopes to these exacting standards. Generally speaking, there are the international standard sizes, and the American standard sizes.
So the next time you put something out to be mailed, consider all that has gone on prior to make it possible for you to do this. Pay homage to those whose ingenuity brought about all the conveniences of our day—including mailing envelopes—for, without each one of them, we might find that what is now the simplest task would be an effort of great magnitude. Getting that “Happy Birthday” card to Aunt Ethel might require a lot more than a trip to the card store, a signature, and dropping the mailing envelope-enclosed card into a post office box.