Arago: Baggage Tokens and Tags

Not all of Owney’s mail-related travels were on trains. Owney received this baggage check token from a sidewheel paddle steamboat. The Steamer Tremont, operated by the Portland Steam Packet Company, carried passengers and mail between Portland, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. This boat was known as a nightboat, traveling between the two cities overnight. The baggage token, #13, would have been used to check a piece of passenger luggage during the trip. This baggage check was made by John Robbins, who began crafting such tokens in the early 1840s in Boston, Massachusetts.