Little America Post Office safe

Little America (Antarctica) Post Office (USPS) · 1934

To commemorate Admiral Robert Byrd's Antarctic Expedition II, the Post Office Department issued a postage stamp designed by President Franklin Roosevelt and sent postal clerk Charles F. Anderson to cancel mail for philatelic collectors at Little America, Antarctica. Arriving in November 1934, Anderson found numerous letters sent the previous year had not been processed. He prepared a total of 153,217 mail pieces in just 16 days in the station 20 feet below the ice with just enough heat to keep the ink from freezing. This safe stored stamps, cancellation dies, and other valuables at the small temporary postal station.