

Memo to an individual meant that the ‘To:’ field had only the name of one recipient. This return receipt would then have to get sent back to the original sender.ĭifferent locations had mail sorting facilities, where the mail would come in, be sorted by groups, departments, locations, zipcode, office numbers, so the delivery was easier. This was a formal receipt that a delivery person would make sure got signed by the recipient who had been sent a registered memo. Each location had different people in different groups. surgery, pharmacology), room number and phone number.Īt UMDNJ, different groups were at different locations, such as Surgery, Pharmacology, ICU, IT. The memo that was being responded to would be attached.Įvery office had an address book, which listed each person's first and last names, campus location, group (e.g. Sometimes instead of writing a new memo, an employee replied to a memo received in the Inbox.

Sometimes the forward list was just paper-clipped on the received memo. Forwarding literally involved adding a list of other people to review the memo. Sometimes whiteout (a white liquid or white paper) was use to erase mistakes.Ī person receiving and reviewing an incoming memo could forward or re-distribute it to others. Mail sometimes was organized and filed in separate folders based on some subject matter.Ī new memo was typically composed on a typewriter. Below that were the following areas: ‘To:’, ‘From:’, ‘Date:’, ‘Subject:’, ‘Body:’, ‘Cc:’, ‘Bcc:’ (only for view in the sender's original), and an indication with ‘Encl.:’, if attachment(s) were included.Ī Memo could sometimes indicate 'Encl.:', if attachments or enclosures such as another file folder, another document, a drawing or a photograph, or even a parcel, were included. The top of the Memo had the words ‘++++++ MEMORANDUM ++++++’ written on it. This was typically a piece of 8½ by 11-inch piece of BOND paper. A secretary or another person would write the memo and put in a Drafts folder, which a superior would review and provide 'red-line' feedback in the Drafts folder. The courier or "office boy" or "mailroom clerk" would come and pick up the mail from the Outbox regularly, sometimes twice per day.Ī memo sometimes was saved for review prior to sending. This was a physical box of metal, wood, or plastic, for memos that were composed and edited, ready for sending to its recipients. The courier or “office boy” or “mailroom clerk” would deliver documents – postal mail or internal memos came to the Inbox regularly, such as twice per day.

It was usually made of wood, metal or plastic. This was the physical inbox where a secretary received incoming documents. TABLE 1 Features of the Interoffice, Inter-organizational Paper-based Mail System as Observed by VA Shiva Ayyadurai at UMDNJ in 1978 The mail system was not only used within offices but also for communication between organizations, across the three campuses of UMDNJ located at Newark, New Brunswick and Piscataway. At UMDNJ, Shiva observed the parts itemized in Table 1, as documented in the materials submitted to the Smithsonian Institution.

The interoffice mail system had a distinct set of interlocked parts. Many people remember the interoffice paper mail system, which was the basis of how offices around the world operated, from the level of secretaries to CEOs. Interoffice, Inter-organizational Paper-based Mail System Email is really a system - a system of interlocking parts, each of which is essential for ordinary people to communicate effectively with one or many others, in an environment where different kinds of information must be shared (memos, documents, files, etc.) i.e. Email is not simply the exchange of text messages. Email is the electronic version of the interoffice, inter-organizational paper-based mail system.
