In the early days of the U.S. Postal Service’s Parcel Post, there weren’t many rules about what you couldn’t mail—and for a short time, that included children.

In 1913, just weeks after Parcel Post launched, a couple in Ohio paid 15 cents in stamps and handed their baby boy to the mailman. Their son was delivered safely to his grandmother’s house a few miles away, with insurance for $50. The child wore the postage on his coat and rode along with the mailbag.

It wasn’t a one-time event. Over the next few years, other families did the same—mailing their toddlers across town with trusted postal workers, often as a cheaper alternative to a train ticket. 

One of the most famous cases of "child mail" happened on February 19, 1914, when five-year-old Charlotte May Pierstorff was mailed from Grangeville to Lewiston, Idaho to visit her grandmother. The reason? A 32¢ stamp (about $10 today) was cheaper than buying a train ticket.

May wore the postage pinned to her coat and traveled in the mail car, accompanied by her mother’s cousin who was also a railway postal clerk. He personally delivered her to her grandmother's front door—no box required. 

It wasn’t until 1915 that the U.S. Postmaster General officially banned mailing human beings, stating the service was for “inanimate objects only.”

Until then, children—apparently—could travel by first class. Want to see what else people have mailed with nothing but a stamp?