Mailboxes: Urban Street Furniture in Canada

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Although overshadowed by email and v-mail, “snail mail” still claims
a small toehold in today’s Canadian society. In contrast, over the
past 150 years (approximately 1850 to 2000) mail and the post office
were central to life in Canada, and mailboxes were a part of every town
and city streetscape. Ubiquitous and often taken for granted, their
history, design, and evolution are usually overlooked by social and even
local histories. Bianca Gendreau attempts to address this by assembling
an account of the diversity and changing look of the mailbox.

The study is methodical, well documented, and generously illustrated.
Gendreau introduces the various types of mailboxes (e.g., free standing,
pillar, lamp, pole, or wall-mounted), the options of letter and/or
parcel box combinations, dual boxes for local and international mail,
and special Christmas-card boxes. The design, materials, colours,
graphics, and functionality of the boxes are covered in detail.
Illustrations from period catalogues and archival photos, as well as
shots from the Canadian Postal Museum collection, show the boxes in use
and in their original settings. All that’s missing is enthusiasm for
the subject.