Traveling Postmarks

A close clook at the forwarding addresses and multiple postmarks on the letters' envelopes show how far many of the letters had to travel before reaching their recipient.  Egypt had rail and steamer-based traveling post offices as early as 1875, when a post office opened on the Alexandria-Cairo rail route.  Elizabeth Sibley's letters from 1/5/1893 and 1/25/1893 are postmarked "ALEXANDRIE-CAIRE" or "AMB ALEXANDRIE-CAIRE" indicating they were from the ambulatory, or traveling post. Emily Sibley Watson's 1/13/1893 letter was posted on the MINIA-CAIRE route, and Elizabeth Sibley's 1/29/1893 letter was posted on the ISMAILIA-CAIRE route.

Details of Egyptian traveling postmarks may be researched in Peter Alan Somervail Smith's The Travelling Post Offices of Egypt, 1983, a publication of the Mobile Post Office Society, No. 4 in its International T.P.O. Markings Series.