Owney the Mail Dog
For nine years, Owney rode the rails and the wagons on top of mailbags as the mascot of the mailmen
- By Arcynta Ali Childs
- Smithsonian magazine, September 2011, Subscribe
He was one of the most recognized celebrities of the late 19th century. Born of humble beginnings, he made frequent public appearances alongside those of noble lineage. He traveled the nation, receiving medals and gifts wherever he went. Later he toured the world as a goodwill ambassador.
Today, a new exhibit at the National Postal Museum is dedicated to the life and achievements of Owney, the terrier-mix dog who served nine years as the unofficial mascot of the U.S. Railway Mail Service.
“One of the reasons he was so popular is that he was this scruffy mutt who achieved way beyond his stature,” says museum curator Nancy Pope.
Owney began his public service career in 1888, after his owner—a postal clerk in Albany, New York—abandoned him. The other clerks took him into their care and Owney bided his time, sleeping on mailbags. When the mailbags moved—first to the mail wagon and then to the railway station—Owney went with them. At first, the four-legged postal carrier rode local trains, but he eventually traveled throughout the United States.
As newspapers began chronicling his travels in the early 1890s, Owney’s fame grew. The clerks outfitted their mascot with a collar, which accumulated medals and tags with each city he visited. When there were too many tags to fit on the collar, Postmaster General John Wanamaker gave Owney a harness for them. He became a popular special guest at dog shows and, in 1895, he embarked on a 129-day “Around the World” publicity tour aboard the Northern Pacific mail steamer Victoria.
The biographies of famous public figures are often embellished, and Owney was no exception. So, in 2009, when the National Postal Museum decided to create a new Owney exhibit, Pope, with the help of then museum intern Rachel Barclay, researched an exhaustive history of Owney’s life and travels—combing through newspaper articles and railroad maps, as well as the tags and medals Owney received when riding the rails. Sure enough, they debunked some myths, including that Owney was a stray who had wandered cold and hungry into the Albany post office one night.
While the mascot’s actual age was never known, by 1897 he had become old, ill and crotchety. After he bit a mail clerk, a deputy U.S. marshal was sent to investigate; Owney tried to attack him and was fatally shot. Mail clerks raised money to have his body preserved by taxidermy. His mortal remains were kept on display at the U.S. Post Office Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. until he was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1912. Owney was moved to the Postal Museum when it opened in 1993.
For the new exhibit, Pope and museum conservator Linda Edquist wanted Owney to look his best, so they sent him to taxidermist Paul Rhymer. “It really is a miracle that he came in as good shape as he did,” Rhymer says. It took him a month to complete the canine’s first major restoration in his years on display. (During his absence, the museum made do with a stand-in, dubbed “Phony Owney.”)
This past July, the U.S. Postal Service honored its fallen colleague with a stamp bearing his scruffy visage. An online book published by the museum will help bring Owney’s story to a new generation.
“In history, we deal with humans and big events,” says Pope, “[so] to study and chronicle the life of a dog is really not something I signed up for when I started doing history work. And it’s just been tons of fun.”
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Comments (10)
Owney, the traveling dog. That was the title of my fourth grade classroom's favorite story in their reader. Years later, here I am dedicating my life to the welfare of animals. I wish I had not read the story on this page. Our classroom reader did not tell us that he was shot. But we didn't know how to treat our pets with compassion one hundred years ago. We kept them outside in a dog house. We fed them scraps off the dinner table and we didn't know how to treat the sickness of our pets then. It sounded to me like he had rabies. For many years there has been treatment for this disease. How sad that we didn't have the medicine that we have today. Could they have chloroformed him?
I hope none of my students who are adults now, read how he ended his life.
We must be the guardians of all animals for they can not speak for themselves.
Our wonderful Kindred Spirits, so devoted. How we owe them so much.
Posted by Stuart Wisong (author) on April 19,2012 | 07:58 PM
Dear Cynthia Brennan, young people or animals can also be crotchety. Your offense at the use of the word when applied to an elderly dog is puzzling. Also, this animal did bite someone. That is simply inexcusable behavior. It seems likely that elderly, crotchety Owney basically lost his senses with old age and was not safe to be around. What if he had attacked a child? The story of his younger years is wonderful, though.
Posted by River on March 26,2012 | 01:57 AM
How thrilled I was to see the article about Owney. When I was little, I had a little book, about 4 x 5 inches, and it had maybe 10 pages. It was called "Owney, The Postal Dog" and it became dogeared by the time i outgrew reading it. I still remember the day my mother gave me the book. I loved that doggie and never forgot him. I would give anything to have that little book now. I was about 4 years old, and it was in 1934 that I had the book. I am now 82 years old and Owney never left my heart or memory! Thank you for the story, but I am sorry he was not as sweet a dog as the book portrayed. I was in near tears when i read the article. He was part of my life in other ways -- I come from a railroad family and my husband was a mail man! And I love terriers.
Posted by Ruth Smiley on February 4,2012 | 12:54 PM
Intrigued by Owney's story, I checked out a children's picture book about him, A Small Dog's Big Life: Around the World with Owney by Irene Kelly. I think this book is much better than this article and shows more sensitivity and respect to Owney. For example, the author's note (last page of the book) describes how the postal worker bit by Owney was handling the dog roughly in front of a reporter. Irene Kelly also writes that Owney's estimated age at the time of death was 17, and that many postal workers did not believe he could bite anyone since he had already lost all of his teeth.
I dislike this Smithsonian article because it does not do Owney justice. It seems disrespectful to this wonderful dog. How would you like to be called "crotchety" when you get older? That is very rude. I got the feeling the author did not care about Owney or his story.
Posted by Cynthia Brennan on January 25,2012 | 12:31 AM
i felt so sad that Owney had to die in this way. He was old and losing teeth. he could only chew soft food. he was one eye blind. and he never really had a stable home. how hard it was for him when he was old and in pain! how bad he could attach people. he was shot. he could never tell us why and what had happened to him. was he treated kindly as as one tag requested for him during his travelling. i am glad he was resting in peace now.
Posted by kathy on January 12,2012 | 03:49 AM
Interesting story! I read this just a few weeks before a trip to DC where I saw the Owney exhibit for myself. It was nicely done, a fun way to expound on the history of the postal service.
Posted by wendy on October 17,2011 | 03:31 PM
This is the saddest, most disheartening story I ever read.
Owney was indeed a loyal friend and mascot, and it makes one wonder why the post office personel allowed him to be burdened with a heavy load of medals? That was more torture than tribute. And, they would have been wiser to spend their money on a vet for Owney than to pay a taxidermist to stuff him. Again, some tribute! A great idea for a children's book to introduce children to the postal service?
I don't think so.
Owney's dreadful end is too horrible to comment on.
Posted by betsy lewin on October 12,2011 | 09:08 AM
I loved this story featured in the magazine...I can't wait to go to the post office and get the stamps. This would make a great children's book to introduce them to the postal service. I remember going on a tour when I was in elementary school to mail our mother's day cards.
Posted by Diane Alder on August 26,2011 | 02:31 PM
Thank you so very much for an interesting story and the excellent photos. It made the stamp and Owney such a vital and marvelous part of this nation's postal history. Keep up the good work.
Where can we secure prints of the pictures shown in this display. I want to give them to my children. Thank you so very much.
Posted by samuel n.goldman on August 25,2011 | 02:04 AM
Poor Critter
He first was noticed in 1888 and lived til 1897-That's dog years of 63. He carried ... how much weight?.... With these tokens of metal on his small frame?.... No wonder he got ill & crancky... I would too..So sad he was Shot...... If anyone had any sense at the time to have been his care taker....and taken the weight from his body ............
he would of been a happier critter.... But this was a great story........ just so sad how he died....:-(
Posted by Joan on August 22,2011 | 11:05 PM