What is the origin of junk mail?

Answer 1

And one of Selma's most famous residents was Lunsford Richardson, who was born in 1854 on a farm near Selma. He rose to fame as the inventor of Vick's Vapo Rub. After graduating from Davidson College at the top of his class, he became a teacher and then a pharmacist, working out of Dr. Joshua Vick's drugstore in Selma. While in Johnston County, he invented Richardson's Croup and Pheumonia Cure Salve and later changed the name to Vick's Salve in honor of Dr. Vick. The name was then changed to Vapo-Rub and a nationwide advertising campaign made the name a household word. In 1905, Richardson convinced the Postal Service to allow him to mass-mail his advertising circulars simply to "boxholder" instead of individuals. Because this marked the first such mailing, Richardson gained the dubious distinction of also being known as "the father of junk mail."