USS Oklahoma postmark handstamp

December 6, 1941

One of the most sobering items in the National Postal Museum’s collection is one of the smallest. It is a simple registration mail handstamp that was used to mark the date a mail piece was received and processed. What makes this ordinary piece striking are the date on the stamp--“Dec. 6 1941”--and where it was used--aboard the USS Oklahoma. The handstamp was recovered from the Oklahoma after it sank during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.