Dead Letter Office Return Envelopes: Looking For Dedicated Catalogue Or Listings

Greetings,

I have been recently collecting the Dead Letter Office return envelopes and would like to know if there is any dedicated, specialized catalogue or listing of these envelopes.

I understand that there should be some detailed descriptions in the Thomas R. Wegner's 1994 book, 'The Washington D.C. Dead Letter Office to 1920: A Monograph of Postal History', but it seems out of print and only occasionally appearing in auctions. I would love to get a copy if this is the only source to find the listings of DLO return envelopes... So any information is welcome!

Here's some of the basic examples of the DLO return envelopes, return free, with different geometric symbols from my album pages (still looking for the 'Circle' symbol, which seems pretty scarce).

Please note that the categorization is merely based on my simple observations and not on any reliable references, so it might be somewhat incorrect and inadequate - I appreciate any comment for correction and improvement.









Thank you in advance,
Hironobu

Some more to add - earlier examples.


1865, return fee 3 cents


1867, return free, with returned cover.



- Hironobu

And some later examples from Dead Letter Branches.






-Hironobu

Wegner's works show up in the APS catalog search of Philatelic Union Libraries. From there you can request copies or to borrow. The APRL has the book you reference. Are you an APS member?

https://catalog.stamplibrary.org/fi...x?lang=en-US

You might want to check out Tony Wawrukiewicz' exhibit on the Dead Letter Office.
It is posted on Stamp Smarter here on this page. I can't post a direct link as the file is on Google Drive, and that is apparently not allowed...

https://stampsmarter.org/learning/H...xhibits.html

I don't think that Tony intended this to be an exhaustive example of all the envelopes used, but he does show a number of them.

Mike

Hi rogdcam, thank you for the information. I am not a member of APS but it seems that even non-members can submit requests for copies (I reckon borrowing should be difficult as I'm living in Japan). I also made some quick search on the library's resources and found many relevant reports and publications, such as ' DLO official envelope' by H. M. Konwiser (1941). Regarding the multiple benefits, I decided to join APS and will try expand my knowledge. Thanks again for your recommendation.

- Hironobu

Hi Mike, this is great.

Tony's exhibition was one of the resources I've been eagerly looking after, and thanks for letting me know it's available on StampSmarter! I am currently expanding my Returned to Writer/Sender collection to include the handling of Unmailable/Undeliverable matters, and DLO return envelope is an important player together with 'Returned for Better Directions' and 'Deficiency in Address Supplied By…' matters. Tony's exhibition leafs will not only give me a reference to the DLO return envelope categorization but also a great insight to the relevant postal systems. Thanks again!

-Hironobu