Frank Staff USA Collection

Frank Staff was a prestigious and respected collector and postal historian. This collection of mail from the USA is now available online for the first time.

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Pony Express Mail

Postal memorabilia relating to Wells Fargo and other pony express companies donated to Bath Postal Museum by the eminent postal historian Frank Staff. Henry Wells and William Fargo founded Wells Fargo, a mail carrying company, in San Francisco, 1852. Within 15 years, all of their major rivals - notwithstanding vast government subsidies - had been absorbed, bankrupted or forced to quit. Wells Fargo prospered in many operations. The company carried mail for many years in California, and the green Wells Fargo post boxes were almost as common in San Francisco as the red boxes of the official US Post Office. The company lost its mail carrying contract in 1895 but the company continued to prosper - the Wells Fargo bank continues to this day.