The Tramp Dog Owney, Thursday 11 July 1895

Owney was a dog from Albany, New York who starting hanging around the post office in 1888. He was strangely attracted to the mail bags, and when his master moved away, Owney decided to stay behind with his postie friends. Eventually he began following the mail bags on trains around the country, but always returned to Albany. He became the unofficial mascot of the US Postal Service and was considered good luck (no train he was on was ever robbed). In 1895, the little hobo toured the rail lines of Europe and Asia.

Owney was given a collar for hotel and baggage tags that showed where he’d been. As the number of tags increased, the collar became too heavy and was replaced with a harness to distribute the weight more evenly. He traveled to Canada about six times, including a trip to Vancouver in 1895.

Owney’s tags tell the story of his time here. He visited the first Hotel Vancouver and rode the interurban train to New Westminster where he went to the Guichon Hotel (destroyed in 1898 by the Great Fire) and was given the key tag for room #32. Owney also made it out to North Bend and checked out the CPR’s Fraser Canyon House (“Fraser Canon” on the tag is a typo). 

Owney was murdered in Toledo, Ohio, allegedly for “ill-temper” in June, 1897. The Postal Service had the popular mascot stuffed and Owney and his many tags now live at the National Postal Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. Although his traveling days have long passed, Owney remains active even in death, and you can follow his posthumous tweets on Twitter. 

Sources: News clipping: Weekly Spokesman-Review (Spokane); photo of Owney: National Postal Museum on Flickr; tags: National Postal Museum

Source: postalmuseum.si.edu

213 Notes/ Hide

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  4. theatrewatchinggirl reblogged this from pasttensevancouver and added:
    I remember seeing him...it’s a wonderful museum.
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  22. o3osnorlaxo3o reblogged this from pasttensevancouver and added:
    if a dog can do it…why can’t I?
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    interesting, a dog traveller :)
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