WASHINGTON, DC — A university professor and a college student are being honored for their scholarship in the field of United States postal history. Professor David A. Gerber, Department of History at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Ryan Ellis, Department of Communications, University of California at San Diego will receive the second annual Rita Lloyd Moroney Awards from U.S. Postal Service representatives in recognition of their important undertakings.

The Rita Lloyd Moroney Awards are designed to encourage scholarship on the history of the United States postal system and to raise awareness about the significance of the postal system in American life. They include the Senior Prize ($2,000) for work published by faculty members, independent scholars, public historians and other non-degree candidates and the Junior Prize ($1,000) for work written or published by undergraduates or graduate students.

Professor Gerber's book, "Authors of Their Lives: The Personal Correspondence of British Immigrants to North America in the Nineteenth Century," merited the Senior Prize, while Ellis' paper, "'Binding the Nation Together: The Politics of Postal Service," secured the Junior Prize for its author.

The awards are intended for scholarship on any topic on the history of the United States postal system from the colonial period to the present — including the history of the colonial postal system that preceded the establishment of the United States postal system in 1775. Though submissions must be historical in character, they can draw on methods or disciplines other than history, for example, geography, cultural studies, literature, communications or economics. Comparative or international historical studies are eligible if the United States postal system is central to the discussion.

U.S. Postal Service officials will present the awards later at ceremonies in San Diego and Buffalo. Last year's winners were Professor David M. Henkin, Department of History at the University of California at Berkeley (Senior Prize) and Jesse Vogler, College of Architecture, Texas Tech University (Junior Prize).

Rita Lloyd Moroney, the awards' namesake, began conducting historical research for the postmaster general in 1962 and later served as the U.S. Postal Service historian from 1973 to 1991. Additional information on these awards and application instructions are at: usps.com/postalhistory/moroney.htm.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

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