Post Office, stamping and sorting letters, 1875.

Plate taken from the 'Illustrated London News' (Vol 75/1, p 160). Each letter that pased through the postal service had to stamped by hand. The volume of letters was growing, and in response, the post office had implemented the use of the prepaid postage stamp and set up a daily delivery service by the mid-nineteenth century. The rows of clerical workers, needed to proces the growing volume of correspondance, are part of a general trend towards the growth of the modern concept of office work.