A Six-Year-Old Girl was Mailed Via Parcel Post in Idaho

Travel is expensive. What if you just want your kiddo to visit grandma but cant afford it? This Idaho couple got creative. The United States Postal Service Parcel Post started getting underway in 1913. At the beginning there was little to no rules on what you could or couldn't ship. The only real rule was that there was a 50 pound limit on anything you wanted to ship.

Eventually more rules and regulations were added and enforced as the postal service expanded and became more popular. In Idaho a married couple with a little girl got creative and mailed their six year old daughter named May to visit her grandparents from Grangeville to Lewiston. According to OnlyInYourState , "Since there were no provisions in the parcel post regulations specifically prohibiting the sending of a person, they decided to "mail" their daughter. The postage total was a paltry 53-cents in stamps, which were then attached to May's coat. She traveled the entire distance to Lewiston in the train's mail car and was delivered to her grandmother's home by the mail clerk on duty."

Shortly after that human February 1914 shipment, the postal regulations were adjusted to make sure people were not allowed to be 'mailed' anymore.