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Research dossier · General Reference

John W. Curry

first African-American letter carrier in the United States Post Office

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 3, 2025
Entity authorityQ21155596 ↗
Source-derived summary

John W. Curry has been credited as the first African-American letter carrier working for the United States Post Office. He was active in the National Association of Letter Carriers, and his death in 1899 was noted in its magazine, The Postal Record. He was employed in the Washington, DC post office in 1867.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “John W. Curry” as first African-American letter carrier in the United States Post Office. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1899, 1867—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where John, Curry and first can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as first African-American letter carrier in the United States Post Office. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 3, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q21155596. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1899 and 1867.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John W. Curry”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John W. Curry primary sources, John W. Curry archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John W. Curry”?
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  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John W. Curry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.