Oviedo’s Post Office Prior to WWI
← Previous | Home | Next →
This 1908 international cover documents a journey from Theodore L. Mead in Oviedo to Dr. O. Meyer in Hannover, Germany. Mailed on October 27, the envelope is franked with a one-cent green Franklin and a two-cent carmine Washington stamp to meet the international rate alongside the two-cent postal stationery indicia. Interestingly, while the letter originated in Oviedo, it bears a prominent Sanford, Fla. dispatch postmark from 12 PM that same day. This suggests that the mail was either dropped directly at the larger Sanford hub to catch a faster outbound connection or was rapidly shuttled there via the local rail line shortly after being posted.
The reverse of the cover features two crisp German receiving stamps from Hannover, dated November 7, 1908. This indicates a total transit time of approximately eleven days from the interior of Florida to central Germany—a remarkably efficient duration that involved a rail trip to a northern port, a transatlantic steamship crossing, and final sorting through the German imperial mail system. The recipient's address at Bokemahle 4 still exists in Hannover today, serving as a silent link to Mead’s international network of scientific and botanical correspondence.
The reverse of this 1908 international cover features two identical circular receiving stamps from the German postal system. Both marks are transcribed as HANNOVER, dated -7.11.08.4-5 V, and include the delivery district or station identifier s 1 t. In the German dating format of the era, this indicates the letter arrived in Hannover on November 7, 1908, between the hours of 4:00 and 5:00 AM (V for Vormittag). These crisp, dual strikes provide definitive proof of the letter's successful arrival and processing at its final destination city just eleven days after its dispatch from Florida.