Mail Carrier with a Camera: Photographs by Burford Royston

Mail Carrier with a Camera: Photographs by Burford Royston presents a poignant and witty collection of mid-twentieth-century images of rural Missouri life.

Royston (1919–2009) was a mailman with the US Postal Service from 1950 into the 1980s. As he traveled his mail route in southern Howard County, Missouri, he documented what he saw through his camera. This book features 107 of Royston’s photos, printed from his original slides. They picture the community he served, from businesses to farmyards, back roads to houses, widows to laborers, and everything in between.

Dr. Joan Stack, the State Historical Society of Missouri’s art curator, provides commentary on the photos, while SHSMO editor and Missouri historian Kimberly Harper offers an Introduction.

Award-winning photographer, 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, and Missouri resident Deanna Dikeman contributes the book’s Foreword. 

Product Specifications 

Published by The State Historical Society of Missouri, 2025.  Paperback, 224 pages, 107 color photos.