Diplomatic Security Service:
Diplomatic Courier Ward Christensen displays his many passport visas (circa 1954).
Diplomatic Security Service:
Diplomatic Courier Ray Irwin returns to the United States after an airplane crash in 1955.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Three diplomatic couriers review the world-wide network of U.S. Diplomatic Courier routes map, circa 1950s.
Diplomatic Security Service:
A diplomatic courier with papers from U.S. posts all over Latin America is met by a State Department man, circa 1950s.
Diplomatic Security Service:
September 1961, two diplomatic couriers verify pouches.
Diplomatic Security Service:
A diplomatic courier stands by a sea wall with his pouch, circa 1950s.
Diplomatic Security Service:
A diplomatic courier just prior to boarding an airplane, circa 1950s.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Diplomatic Courier Ray Irwin (on stretcher) is brought back to the United States for medical attention.
Diplomatic Security Service:
A Regional Courier Officer briefs couriers on a new trip, circa 1950s.
Diplomatic Security Service:
A diplomatic courier boards a plane while the porter carries pouches ahead of him, circa 1950s.
Diplomatic Security Service:
An American diplomatic courier poses with his cargo just prior to boarding at an airport in Latin America, circa 1950s.
Diplomatic Security Service:
December 1951, a diplomatic courier fills a vertical pouch.
Diplomatic Security Service:
December 1951, a diplomatic courier seals a pouch.
Diplomatic Security Service:
December 1951, a diplomatic courier stuffs a pouch.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Two diplomatic couriers review the world-wide network of U.S. Diplomatic Courier routes map, circa 1950s.
Diplomatic Security Service:
A diplomatic pouch which would have held relatively small written dispatches in briefcases before 1980.
Diplomatic Security Service:
A Diplomatic Courier oversees the loading of diplomatic pouches aboard an international Braniff Airlines flight, circa 1950.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Diplomatic Courier William McGovern leaving the State Department with a typical pouch load, 1963.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Diplomatic Courier Philip F. Vandivier boards an airplane with two diplomatic pouches at the Frankfurt Regional Courier Facility in 1951.
Diplomatic Security Service:
A Department of State Diplomatic Courier (right) delivers pouched items to a U.S. Embassy Paris officer on the airport tarmac late one evening in 1957.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Department of State Diplomatic Courier Bill Croasdale hands pouch to Vice Consul I.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Vice President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles present Diplomatic Courier Frank Irwin with the State Department’s Distinguished Service Medal, 1956.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Map of Routes for the Department of State’s Courier Service.
Diplomatic Security Service:
Packing a Pouch
Diplomatic Security Service:
Sealing Correspondence