The project examined 200 years of collaboration between private industry and the United States Postal Service: a sector that covers more than 8 million jobs in the US, generates more than $ 1.3 billion in revenue and contributes 8% of US GDP.
"We are proud that the efforts of Salesian Missions, and in particular the good work of Fr Edward Cappelletti, SDB, in conjunction with the American postal industry are duly recognized by this important national institution", reported the Salesians from the Missions Office in New Rochelle.
Founded in 1946 by Fr James O'Loughlen, the Mission Office was entrusted in 1959 to Fr Edward Cappelletti, from whom it received great impetus and dynamism for the next 37 years, until 1996.
In 1963 Fr Cappelletti initiated a fundraising program by correspondence. The typing staff had created manually one of the first forms of mailing list, selecting possible donors from telephone directories. At first they selected citizens whose surnames were clearly Italian or Irish (and therefore probably Catholics). Later they developed a first database of potential Hispanic benefactors, obtained by crosschecking the Puerto Rico Phone Directory with some lists of surnames among US citizens.
After the construction of the new Mission Office building in 1970, new machinery was installed to automatize the work and increasingly sophisticated systems were developed to reach benefactors by mail. In 1975 they reached the target of one million people registered on its database and in that year also the first series of motivational publications was launched - an advanced practice at the time.
In the '80s Fr Cappelletti continued the work by developing a proprietary program to target Catholics. This was more efficient than previous pre-compiled lists of names. Furthermore, recognizing a growing Latino population in some parts of the United States, he began the creation of a mailing list in Spanish. The growth of the database coincided well with advances in as technology. By the end of the decade and into the 90s computers and servers began to replace typewriters.
Currently the database of the Salesian Mission Office in New Rochelle has 8 million names and over 30 million deliveries are made each year within the ordinary postal service.
The virtual exhibition is available at http://postalmuseum.si.edu/americasmailingindustry/
