It was my understanding from what my father told me (and he corresponded 
with lots of service men) was the use of the APO meant that the mail went 
any where in the world at domestic rates. I never asked if the serviceman 
had to pay to send mail home, but it cost his family and friends only 3 
cents to send him a letter using the APO, and I think air mail was 5 cents 
then and went to 6 cents in the 1950s.

At the Historic Upshur Museum in Gilmer, TX, they have perhaps a dozen 
emails from one family. Only one or two arrived at the museum without an 
envelople and the then curator accessioned both parts. One she had planned 
to use in a display sometime because it had about four forwarding stamps on 
it. It was sent near the end of the war and it could not catch up with the 
sailor. In the case they have, most of the letters from the sailor were 
complaining about the family not writing, but apparently their letters were 
just not catching up to him.

Perhaps in your case, either people did not save the envelope before giving 
it to the museum, or someone at the museum thought the envelope took up too 
much space. The envelope has a window through which the address on the email 
showed, so no one had to waste time addressing envelopes.

Mary Kirby
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kimberly Kenney, Curator" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: wartime letters and stamps


> Hi Micki and List,
>
> One of the lenders had a piece of V-Mail in his pile
> of letters, and it was in a small envelope, with the
> address that you write at the top peeking out of the
> window.
>
> The return address is "War & Navy Departments V-Mail
> Service" -- and in the upper right corner where a
> stamp would be is printed "Penalty for private use to
> avoid payment of postage, $300."
>
> More than one person has written and said that V-Mail
> didn't have envelopes -- since I have found at least
> one example that did, my new question is when were
> evelopes used and when were they not used?
>
> This project is just bringing up more questions than
> answers!
>
> Other people I have talked to since my first post seem
> to think that servicemen were responsible for air mail
> stamps.  I have been reading a series of letters
> written aboard the USS Healy during WWII, and he
> mentions to his family not to use V-Mail because it
> takes much longer, and air mail is faster.
>
> I am wondering if V-Mail was always an option for
> which you wouldn't need a stamp, but if you wanted to
> get your letter there faster, you chose air mail??
>
> Thanks for your help!
> Kim
>
>
> --- Micki Ryan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> To Kimberly Kenney:
>> My understanding of V-mail was that the serviceman
>> wrote his message on
>> standard sized pads, which then went to the censor
>> for checking and then to
>> the image service for photo-reduction and printing
>> onto the Vmail standard
>> mailer, one side one sheet, which was folded over
>> and mailed as a single
>> sheet with the address outside and a printed logo--
>> dark blue I think--
>> identifying it as Vmail. No stamp, no return
>> address. I think they were
>> delivered by Western Union, not by the US Mail. Mind
>> you this was a hair
>> before my cognizant time, but one museum I worked in
>> had a collection of
>> them. I also have a personal family collection of
>> Civil War letters, written
>> from the camps near the battlefields, and they all
>> have stamps.
>>
>> Micki Ryan
>> Highline Historical Society
>> Burien WA
>>
>>
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>
>
> Kimberly A. Kenney, Curator
> Wm. McKinley Presidential Library & Museum
> 800 McKinley Monument Dr. NW
> Canton OH 44708 * 330-455-7043
> Visit the Ohio Memory Project at http://www.ohiomemory.org
>
> * NEW EXHIBIT:  "Made in Canton" will be on view through July 24, 2005
>
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> science and history!  http://www.mckinleymuseum.org
>
> "Let us ever remember that our interests are in concord, not conflict; and 
> that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of 
> ar."  -- 25th United States President William McKinley
>
>
>
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