FUN WITH MAPS ISSUE 2024-162

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (August 28, 2024) – In this edition of Fun with Maps we celebrate the founding of the “American Messenger Company” on this date in 1907. (NOTE: That name changed to one you are most familiar with today.)

“WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?”

If you are expecting a delivery from a brown truck today, you might want to leave a cupcake out for the driver because UPS is celebrating Founders Day.

Jim Casey and Claude Ryan started a delivery service called American Messenger Company in a Seattle, Washington basement on August 28, 1907.  That company went from handing over telegrams to packages and became the world’s leading courier of ground shipping.

UPS’ reputation is founded on the principle of accurate time-delivered packages.  As the years have seen bicycle deliveries replaced by Model-Ts to today’s iconic brown “package cars”, the company has increased delivery hubs around the country and the world.  For example, the primary international air hub is Louisville Mohammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky, the second busiest cargo airport in the country (behind FedEx in Memphis) and fifth busiest in the world.

Two Fun Facts:

• 2008 Kentucky Derby winner, Big Brown, was named in honor of the company.
• A small park with a waterfall marks the Seattle location where UPS was founded.

Ruth White’s pictorial map of Washington state from 1938 is shown here.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.