Hello List, I am working on an exhibition honoring local veterans from all of our nation's wars, as told through the letters they wrote home. I'm wondering if any of you have information about when servicemen had to use stamps and when they didn't. Several of the Civil War letters in our collection refer to having the people back home send them stamps. Many of our WWI and WWII letters seem to be "Free" when the letters are sent from training facilities or aboard Navy ships. But once the veterans are stationed "somewhere" (as many of the letters read) they have airmail stamps. Obviously, the entire Civil War was fought on American soil, and these soldiers had to use stamps to send letters home. Does anyone know when it became policy to let the military send letters home free? Is this just during wartime or all the time? Also, I was wondering about V-Mail -- we don't have any envelopes to go with the V-Mail in our collection, so I don't know if they were stamped or not. Does anyone know? How about today? Are the servicemen overseas allowed to send mail free? I imagine so -- I corresponded with a Marine during the first Gulf War and all of his letters were not stamped. Any insights you could offer would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Kim Kenney 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 * SUMMER CAMPS: Check our website for all of our exciting summer camps in 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 war." -- 25th United States President William McKinley __________________________________ Discover Yahoo! Find restaurants, movies, travel and more fun for the weekend. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/weekend.html ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).