uspostalservice

I'm fairly sure we already have this pic in the Veterans group...But I like good reruns :)

This appears be a New York City letter carrier with hat badge No. 814. The Bain publication date appears to be December 22, 1924. In an attempt to confirm/narrow the date of this photo I searched the archives of The Literary Digest for 1900-1925 without finding the issue (cover) in the mailman's sack.   I also searched Google images and eBay for Literary Digest (1900-1925) without success, although I could have missed it.   It's unclear to me what the archives represent, as they don't display the covers seen in Google images or on eBay.   I have no doubt someone will find it on their first search attempt ;)

Pixel Wrangler : my search attempts have come up blank too. My only observation is that the cover layout with the date top center may have come in during the Spring of 1920. See www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=literary+digest+... for examples from January and February 1920 (without top center dates) and from June, July, and October with the same layout as the cover the postman is carrying.

swanq, good observations on the layout and layout changes! In looking at the eBay examples in your link I noticed that virtually all of the magazine covers have a Cheshire address label obscuring part of the cover somewhere near the top of the magazine and very often it's been affixed right over The Literary Digest name.   Yet in the Bain photograph, there isn't a label -- unless it's covered by the postman's hand in the bottom left corner of the magazine, which seems unlikely given the number of covers with the Cheshire label near the top. It makes me wonder if perhaps this was a staged promotional photograph somehow on behalf of The Literary Digest. Note how all the "messy" string/twine is sort of behind the magazine, while only a single strand crosses the subject cover. I'm hoping this is an outtake while the postman blows his nose, or whatever he is doing ... ; )

Pixel Wrangler : I had also wondered if it was staged. I took a look at what's in the Hathi Trust archive for Literary Digest. See catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000051914 It looks as though the magazine came out in quarterly volumes and the most likely volume is volume 65. A copy of this volume has been digitized at the University of Minnesota, but it looks as though the covers weren't included when issues were bound into the volume. Some volumes from the University of Michigan do have covers, but there doesn't seem to be a copy of volume 65 from the University of Michigan in the Hathi Trust archive.

Another Bain photo taken on the same occasion reveals that the date on the issue is May 22, 1920.

I think my pay was US$2.97/hour about this time.

"Lest the inexperienced think this would be a low-paid job few would want, it should be noted that the pay [for postal sorters] begins at $4.22 an hour and tops at $5.51 per hour."
— National City Star-News, 16 August 1973, page A-1.

Ralph S. Colonell was the Postmaster at the time this photo was taken. I can't find a photo of him. We don't know if he's one of these people.

"For use during the Christmas rush, the Post Office Department is offering this year a new 4-cent Christmas stamp for sale and is preparing for new postage rates starting January 7[, 1963]."
— From The Coronado Eagle circa 1962.