The Real Mailbox

The photos from Leiden University Library depicted the women used the mailbox in the Bergota street. In the right is this "Brievenbus" which now is displayed as memorial in the front of Kantor Pos Besar building, Semarang.

Today, the interaction between people were very dynamics. For me, when I started my activity in the morning, I will worried if my cellphones were in low power condition/ inactive , rather than got my breakfast. Its getting common while people wake up in the morning, then firstly checked their gadget, as same as they gonna go to bed in the night. Yap getting "keep in touch" with others is one's of the common sense due to its real that human created as a social creatures. Long time ago, an effort to made this kind of communication activity were created. The correspondence through the mail was the famous way for long distance communication for a long way. 

One's of my Mom's collection, a
 postage stamp issued on 1962 by
PT POS Indonesia, commemorated
the 4th Asian Games in Jakarta.

According to the official sites of PT. POS Indonesia, as the official institutions about this business, the history of the postal services begin in Batavia. Inisiated by the General-Governoor G.W Baron van Imhoff on August, 26th 1746 with the purposes to securing the mail flows for the cilvilian and military as well. The services not only handled the services in East Indies region but also to the Netherlands. After its established in Batavia, four year laters, its established in Semarang thorugh the cities of Karawang, Cirebon and Pekalongan

This correspondence activity were survive for a long times after that. Even when the telegraph and telephone invented, its still the main ways for long-distance communication. This activity generated the philately hobbies which once so popular. Among the philatelist collecting the postage stamp from the various place in the world is the purposes, thus the correspondence activities not boring. My Mom, are also a philatelist during Her youth.

Talking about the postal history in Semarang city cant be separated from this Kantor Pos Besar, the head office of postal services in this city, located near the Kota Lama. Built in the 19th centuries, this former Post en Telegraf Dienst Kantoor still used as serving the people. There's a zero milestone in front of this building. There's a unique fact that most of the postal head office always existed near the zero milestones. Here in Semarang then Bandoeng, Pekalongan, Cirebon, etc all of them were near the postal head office in those cities. Maybe this was related to the position of those building which in the roadside of "De Groote Post Weg"(eng: the postal grand road). The Groote Post Weg, inisiated under the general-governor of Herman Willem Daendels, a dutch who become French colaborator during the Napoleonic war (1803-1815). The Daendels inisiated to conected the major cities in the north coast of Java in order to made the movement of the army easier to defend the Java  from the British. But also, its purposed to made the flow of the postal services quicker than before then it make a sense while most of them were located close to the zero milestones.

So, when is the last time you sent the mail through this real mailboxes? :)