[Lee Stewart]

The U.S. Postal Service has no official motto.

Many people believe that the U.S. mail’s motto is this phrase: 'Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.' Yes, it’s true that those are the words engraved on the front of New York City’s majestic 1912 James A. Farley Post Office, but they were taken from a 5th-century, BC, book by the Persian historian Herodotus. They refer not to America’s stalwart men and women in blue but to messengers in the ancient Persian Empire (who wore … purple? pink?). This quote was selected by an employee at McKim, Mead, and White, the architectural firm that built the post office, and set in stone in the post office—and in people’s minds. How’s this for a bizarre post office fact—people used to be able to ship babies through the US Postal Service!