The PO also had an active research department, playing a big part in developing optical character recognition and pre-web email. Like Bell Labs, it disappeared with privatization and globalization.
The problem with the use of "traditional" is that it does not align with social history. While there remain many controversies about the proper demarcations of "pre-industrial" and "modern" or "early modern" and "modern," these are much more sensible categories than "traditional." In my opinion, the modern impulse is one of sorting of people and functions and also an impulse toward an ideal private life. While many people think of robust family gatherings as "traditional," I prefer to think of households, whether composed of related or unrelated people, as being more "permeable" (Modell and Hareven, 1973) and less private. In other words, some things that people call "traditional" are not traditional at all.
Periscope Films has some old Post Office training films that express the original soul of the service. I especially like the intro on this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?JqwE&list=PLqqqqZrD37h5rF5QN4v3kDecWOqnVFeyG&index=3&ab_channel=PeriscopeFilm
The PO also had an active research department, playing a big part in developing optical character recognition and pre-web email. Like Bell Labs, it disappeared with privatization and globalization.
The problem with the use of "traditional" is that it does not align with social history. While there remain many controversies about the proper demarcations of "pre-industrial" and "modern" or "early modern" and "modern," these are much more sensible categories than "traditional." In my opinion, the modern impulse is one of sorting of people and functions and also an impulse toward an ideal private life. While many people think of robust family gatherings as "traditional," I prefer to think of households, whether composed of related or unrelated people, as being more "permeable" (Modell and Hareven, 1973) and less private. In other words, some things that people call "traditional" are not traditional at all.