Special Gallery · XXIII · The Museum of Everyday Living

Owney's Hall

The story of this hall

This hall goes nowhere. That is the point. Between 1888 and 1897 a stray terrier named Owney slept on the mail bags of the Albany post office, then followed the bags onto the trains, and then simply kept going - over 100,000 miles of Railway Mail Service track, and once around the world. The clerks called him good luck: no train that carried him ever wrecked. At every stop, a post office fastened a tag to his collar to say HE WAS HERE - brass, leather, tin, more than a thousand in all, until the clerks sewed him a jacket to carry the weight. Each tag on these walls is one visit, one town, one hand reaching down to a dog who belonged to everyone and no one. Like Owney's route, this corridor has no destination. When you have seen the tags, you turn around and go back the way you came - which is what he never did.

1888–1897

US Post Office Department Washington, D.C. Owney tag
San Antonio, Texas Owney tag
Cheyenne, Wyoming Owney tag
Buffalo, New York Owney tag
Tacoma, Washington Owney tag
St. Paul & A. Lea Railway Post Office Owney tag
Los Angeles Owney tag
Brooklyn, New York Owney tag
Athens, Ohio Owney tag
Haverhill, Massachusetts Owney tag
Charlestown, Massachusetts Owney tag
St. Peter, Minnesota Owney tag
Mitchell, South Dakota Owney tag
St. Louis, Missouri Owney tag
Hillsboro, Ohio Owney tag
St. Louis, Missouri Owney tag

16 of 16 frames hung

The hall ends here. There is no far door — you go back the way you came.

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