POST OFFICES

The Postal History of Rio de Janeiro through its POST OFFICES and POSTMARKS

The purpose of this section is to provide those who are accessing this site from abroad a brief description of Brazilian Post Office organization.

A foreword about Brazil

Brazilian Federation is presently organized in 26 States and the Federal District. Each state has its own capital and political /geographic subdivisions called “municipios” (districts or boroughs) that have a Mayor. Rio de Janeiro is one of these states and its capital is also named Rio de Janeiro (commonly known as “Rio”). The state has 92 municipios.

The Rio municipio has a long history. During the Brazilian Empire (1822-1889) Rio was the capital of Brazil, then named Municipio Neutro (something like Neutral District ). In the Republican era (1889-1961) it was renamed Distrito Federal, what can be seen in many cancel captions – as well as its initials DF. After the capital being transferred to Brasilia in 1961, the Distrito Federal was turned into a new state, the Estado da Guanabara, keeping the same boundaries. It didn’t last very long, though. In 1974 it was merged with the former State of Rio de Janeiro, and Rio was appointed the capital of the merged states, succeeding the old state capital Niteroi (Nictheroy). During Guanabara time cancel legends mentioned DR-GB (Regional Directory – Guanabara).

An historic city founded in 1565, Rio was the place where the first Brazilian stamps circulated. It is known that Brazil was the second country in the world to use prepaid postal stamps, just after UK, being the first “Olho-de-Boi” (Bull’s Eye) stamps issued in 1843. It was also the state where the first railroads were built and the first to deploy a railway postal service (TPO).

SITE INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this site is to tell the postal history of the state of Rio de Janeiro and organizing the information contained in postal objects such as its cancels and postmarks.

The first step was to map postal agencies in activity at some point in postal history, searching their original names, geographic location, the period in which they worked and its geographic and historic environment.

Given the extent of the work, it became imperative to establish a scope with clear limits. From the geographic point of view the research area are the states of Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo.

The cancels with these characteristics carry the information that make possible its organization and tabulation as in a collection.

The specialized study and collection of postmarks, cancellation and postal markings, known as marcophily or marcophilately was also contemplated in an additional chapter.

SITE ORGANIZATION

This work with the “agencias postais” – and respective cancels – consist in three main sections as you may see in the structure of the main menu at the top of the site:

CORREIO CENTRAL (Rio Central Office) was located in the 1º de Março street, downtown Rio, being the headquarters of both the national (while Rio was the Brazilian Capital) and the regional Post Offices. Being the oldest postal organization in the country, it centralized most of the postal traffic, including the railway services and later the international airway operations. It is subdivided as follows:

• Agencia central- Central agency:
  • Pre-philately;
  • Correio Geral da Corte: it covers the period (1843-1865) just after the adoption of the postal stamps with such cancel caption;
  • Agencia 1º de março: following the 1865 new regulation, the main caption started using “Rio de Janeiro”. They were used until 1881.
  • Urban postal services
  • Suburban postal services
• As “Secções” – The Sections: according to the new regulations, the central office was reestructured in sections, each assigned specific attributions.
• Railway postal service
• Airway postal service

MUNICIPIO DO RIO, as described in the Foreword, and organized by its neighborhoods (“Bairros”).

ESTADO DO RIO, organized by its 92 Municipios.

 

OTHER TOPICS AT THE MAIN MENU

INDICE GERAL: a general index built in excel spreadsheet, organized alphabetically by the cancel top caption. It indicates the menu where that specific cancel is classified. Very useful as this work is organized by political division, not by names. Note that you can also use the search engine tool provided by the editorial system, the “Pesquisa (search)” button at the top.

HISTÓRIA DOS CORREIOS: history of the postal services in Brazil containing the major federal laws and regulatons.

HISTÓRIA POSTAL: the purpose is to assemble monographs on postal history whose subject is not directly linked to an specific agency.

 

I believe it will also be important to describe in detail the submenus in Correio Central:

Agencia Central: the first Brazilian and Rio postal agency, still in operation, cover the Empire and all centralized services

Correio Ferroviário: here I made a distinction between fixed and mobile agencies

Agências Ferroviárias: these are post offices located inside, or close to, a railway station. Their cancels could bring a caption “Estação” or “Est.” what makes them collectible to philatelists. They operated like a regular post office, similar to the ones in metropolitan areas and subordinate to the same organizational structure.

Correio Ambulante: text from Wikipedia: In US, a travelling post office (TPO), was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. In the UK, the equivalent term was Railway Post Office (RPO). It operated similarly in Brazil, having their own organization, independent from the regular agencies.

Correio Aéreo (Airmail Services): here I briefly present the story of the pioneer airway companies that operate in Brasil. First postal cancels are known by mid-twenties. The first I have is from 1925. It is known the first airmail cancel in the world to be issued in Italy in 1918.

Hope this helped your perusing the site.I apologize for eventual mistakes in the text, because English is not my native language as you certainly noticed.

Images from Paulo Novaes’ collection; contact: prnovaes@gmail.com

AGENCIA	Criada	Fechada	Menu	Nº	LOCAL
A2 rio  V. indice de ambulantes em correio ferroviario					correio ferroviario
abaete (ponto do abaete)	1870	13.06.1916	MRJ	406	jacarepagua
abarracamento	ca.1976	ca.2002	ERJ	1101	rio das flores
ABI associação brasileira de imprensa	11.11.1941	ca.1985	MRJ	136	centro
abraão, AC	17.01.1903	ATIVA	ERJ	6	angra dos reis
academia militar das agulhas negras	30.05.1951	ATIVA	ERJ	1055	resende
acari, AC	ca.1999	ca.2002	MRJ	464	pavuna
accioly de vasconcellos	29.05.1896	16.12.1896	EES	690	joão neiva
acioli (ex-691)	ca.1938	01.12.1999	EES	692	joão neiva
acioli de vasconcelos	21.10.1907	ca.1938	EES	691	joão neiva
adrianopolis	ca.1951	ca.1963	ERJ	870	nova iguaçu
aeroporto (9a.S do Correio Central)	ca.1940	ca.1940	CRJ		correio central
aeroporto de goiabeiras	ca.1963	ca.1963	EES	1365	vitoria
aeroporto internacional do galeão	21.12.1955	ca.2003	MRJ	380F	ilha
aeroporto santos dumont, AC	27.07.1948	ATIVA	MRJ	139	centro
aeroporto tom jobim, AC	ca.2003	ATIVA	MRJ	380G	ilha
aeroporto, AC	ca.2013	ATIVA	EES	1366	vitoria
AF filatelica de vitoria	ca.2013	ATIVA	EES	1336	vitoria
afonso arinos (ex- 370)	14.01.1941	ca.2000	ERJ	371	levy gasparian
afonso cavalcanti, AC	ca.1998	30.09.2020	MRJ	276	cidade nova
afonso claudio, AC (ex-001)	26.02.1891	ATIVA	EES	2	afonso claudio
afonso pena	05.04.1929	ca.1940	EES	187	baixo guandu
agencia postal mirim escola martin luther king	08.12.1970	ca.1971	MRJ	327A	estacio
agencia postal mirim IPAE	28.04.1981	ca.1981	ERJ	953	petropolis
agencia postal movel GB-01	26.08.1971	ND	MRJ	463A	pavuna
agencia postal movel GB-04	26.08.1971	ND	MRJ	300B	copacabana
agencia postal movel GB-04	26.08.1971	ND	MRJ	422A	laranjeiras
agencia urbana “A” largo de santa rita (rede republicana)	30.01.1890	1893	MRJ	194	centro
agencia urbana “A” rua do catete, (rede do Imperio)	08.10.1868	ca.1882	MRJ	117	catete
agencia urbana “B” largo da lapa (rede republicana)	30.01.1890	ca.1898	MRJ	188A	centro
agencia urbana “B” largo da lapa (rede republicana)	30.01.1890	ca.1898	MRJ	188A	centro

© 2018 agenciaspostais.com.br ®