Highlighting the museum’s
early roots, its development
to the present day ... and
what is to come!
Celebrating
Fifteen Years of
Postal History
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Allen Kane
Director
National Postal Museum
Fifteen years ago, the Smithsonian National Postal
Museum opened its doors to large crowds and praise.
When I joined the museum six years ago, I was fortunate to have inherited the hard work of many employees, supporters and volunteers. Their efforts created
and maintained a museum that is a true gem in the
Smithsonian crown.
I am as proud today, as I was when I first arrived, of this staff. While few in
number, they are great in spirit. Thanks to the tireless devotion of our staff and volunteers, the tremendous support of the museum’s partners and supporters, we are
well poised to carry the baton into the future.
Our future will continue the museum’s focus on mail, stamps, and the postal
system. As I write this, we are embarking on a multi-year journey to renovate and
expand the museum’s exhibition space to ensure that all exhibits are fresh, enticing and informative. The new spaces will integrate physical and online experiences, providing access to a greater portion of the collection. The exhibits will target diverse audiences, including postal employees, hobbyists, college-bound
career seekers, non-English speakers, young singles, life-long learners and intergenerational families.
The past few years have already seen the renovation of three-fourths of the
museum’s Moving the Mail atrium exhibits and the addition of the Ford
Education Center, a set of kiosks that give digital access to the museum’s collection not on display. We anticipate the creation of seven new galleries devoted to
the history and development of the U.S. postal system. At the same time we are
working with philatelic experts and scholars from across the U.S. to develop exciting new stamp exhibits that will allow visitors to access the inaccessible within a
dynamic new U.S. stamp gallery.
The rapid and dynamic development of the Internet has allowed the museum to
do what would have seemed unimaginable 15 years ago. Born in 2006, our Arago
program has already become a great success, permitting online visitors to view the
museum’s treasures from their homes and schools.
The museum has added the position of Blount Research Chair (named for exPostmaster General Winton Blount). Under the guidance of the chair, the museum
has created a long-range plan to build our internal and external research programs,
reaching out to scholars and industry experts. In November 2006, the museum
hosted the first Winton M. Blount Symposium on Postal History. This year’s symposium was similarly successful, with a number of papers presented on the theme
of mail and war.
The museum continues to reach out to audiences in a number of ways. Our
strong educational and public outreach programs continue to allow visitors to
explore a range of topics. Programs inspired by stamp subjects, stamp collecting, and
the history of postal operations have brought tens of thousands of visitors into the
museum to experience history close up and hands-on.
Object collections are the core of the museum. We continue to expand and refine
our collections, while keeping a sharp eye on preservation and conservation of these
national treasures for generations yet to come.
None of these achievements, none of these future plans, would be possible without the continued hard work and devotion of the people who sustain the museum
through their work, time and expertise. We are fortunate to have a remarkable and
talented staff, devoted and gifted volunteers, and the support of the Smithsonian
Institution, U.S. Postal Service, thousands of individuals, and numerous organizations and companies whose efforts will help propel us into an exciting next 15 years.
2 • National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
James H. Bruns
Founding Director
National Postal Museum
What do you see? If you’re like
most visitors to the grand overlook
of the National Postal Museum,
your eyes immediately focus on the
DH-4B air mail plane, which seemingly is seconds away from crashing
into the side of the building’s 90foot-tall vaulted atrium. Few visitors, on the other hand, seem to
focus on the artful metal railings of
the grand overlook, which includes
a stylized postmark motif that
bears the date July 30, 1993.
That date signifies the date that
the National Postal Museum was
dedicated, the day the ribbons were
cut to formally open the building to
the public 15 years ago. What is so
remarkable about this date was that
it was set well beforehand. The railing for the grand overlook was
designed nearly a year before the
museum was opened to the public
on July 30, 1993.
The miracle of setting the date
for the opening so far in advance is
that all of the folks who created the
National Postal Museum firmly set
the date for the opening in their
minds, marked it on their calendars, rolled up their sleeves, and
moved heaven and Earth to ensure
that the project would be completed on that date … and they did!
As impossible as that may seem,
what is even more impressive is
that the immediate team that created the National Postal Museum
consisted of only 15 people.
Remarkably, the project team that
achieved this stunning goal consisted of nine people assigned to the
National Postal Museum project
staff and seven folks assigned to the
National Philatelic Collection—15
people in all—all tasked with creatPostmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Table of Contents
4
15 Years of
Postal History
To Hang
5 How
An Airplane
ing a totally new national museum. How was it possible that only 15 Smithsonian employees could have
accomplished such an amazing feat, creating a totally new museum, which was opened on schedule and
slightly under budget, in just three years? They did it
because they weren’t alone.
This small group of 15 people was backed up and
supported by hundreds of equally dedicated
Smithsonian colleagues, employees from nearly
every branch of the institution, who were firmly
committed to making this museum a reality; plus
thousands of equally devoted employees from the
United States Postal Service, including rank-and-file
postal workers from around the country who
scoured the nation for potential artifacts; plus the
employees of the Washington, D.C., offices of the
developer of the building, Hines Limited Partners,
which coordinated the needs of the National Postal
Museum with those of the other tenants of the building; plus an army of outside contractors and consultants, including the museum’s award-winning architect, Florance Eichbaum Esocoff King, and its inaugural exhibit designers, Miles Fridberg Molinaroli.
This is how the National Postal Museum was created
in just three years, completed on schedule and
slightly under budget.
Because so many hands, heads and hearts were
involved in the creation of the National Postal
Museum, it was opened on the date predicted. In
keeping with this, and in commemorating the museum’s 15th anniversary, it is only fitting now that we
honor the efforts of all of those who made this seemingly impossible feat possible.
To all those who played a role in making the
National Postal Museum possible, I’d like to say
thank you for a job well done.
Postmasters Advocate
a
7 Building
Horse
8
8
Postal Employees
On Stamps
Putting Our Stamp
On Education
U.S. Post Office
10 In
Antarctica
Scenes
15 Behind
In Collection
Storage
16 Exhibits to Come
Credits:
Smithsonian Project Director:
National Postal Museum Historian Nancy A. Pope
LEAGUE Project Director and Layout/Design:
Martha M. Lostrom
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary • 3
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Celebrating Fifteen Years of Postal History
The Smithsonian National Postal Museum Has a
Long History and Exciting Future
By my direction, in
July last, a large storage room in the
court of the Post
Office Department
building was renovated and the exhibit
placed therein, where
it forms a creditable
nucleus around which
a great national
postal museum may
be collected for the
benefit and interest
of this and future
generations.
John Wanamaker,
Postmaster General
Annual Report to
Congress, 1894
O
by Nancy A. Pope, Historian
Smithsonian National Postal Museum
“Moving the Mail,” the museum’s atrium centerpiece exhibit, reflects the first changes in the
museum’s exhibit renovation project, with three new exhibits added to the space since 2004.
n July 30, 2008, the National Postal Museum
celebrated its 15th anniversary. Born after years
of dialog and debate, planning and production,
the museum houses a collection that had gone without a true and steady home of its own for more than
a century. The now impressive collections of over five
million objects that constitute the National Postal
Museum were built on a single photograph and a
sheet of Confederate States of America stamps. In
1882 Charles Cavalier, the Pembina, Dakota
Territory, Postmaster donated a photographic postcard of his post office to the Smithsonian Institution.
The photograph, taken in 1863, was the first postal
history-related item brought into the institution.
Four years later M.W. Robertson gave the
Smithsonian a sheet of Confederate States of America
stamps. The collection began to take off after Spencer
Baird ended his tenure as the Secretary of the
4 • National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Smithsonian Institution. In 1888, he bequeathed his
entire collection of stamps (1,773 to be exact) to the
institution.
The Smithsonian Institution was not the first U.S.
government entity to create a postal history display.
The general public had its first opportunity to view
treasures from America’s postal past before the
Smithsonian donations. In 1876 the Post Office
Department brought a number of historic and thencontemporary items to the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The display included a
Railway Post Office (RPO) car, complete with a nearby mail crane that was used for “on-the-fly” mail
exchange service, mailbags and locks, postal maps,
and even an envelope cutting machine. In addition to
the display, the department mounted mailboxes
throughout the grounds for visitors’ use.
The department hosted another exhibit of three-
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
How To Hang an Airplane
The first thing visitors notice when they enter the museum is a de Havilland DH-4B biplane hanging from the ceiling
in a manner that suggests it is heading straight at them. To
either side of this airplane, nicknamed the “workhorse of the
airmail service,” are a 1911 airplane that was the first to
carry airmail in the United States and a 1936 monoplane,
the Stinson-Reliant SR-10. With all of the activity in the air
and on the ground of the museum’s atrium, it is only natural
for visitors to ask—how did those planes get there?
The trio of aircraft hanging in the museum’s atrium are
on loan from the National Air and Space Museum.
Fortunately for this museum, the staff of Air and
Space not only lent the items, but also delivered
and hung them as well. And hanging airplanes is
something with which the crew of that museum
has years of experience.
Each aircraft was stripped of its wings in order
to fit through the museum’s loading dock area
and into the atrium. The airplanes were put in
place before any other atrium exhibits, ensuring a
wide open work space. As dozens of employees
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics offices looked
on through their atrium windows, Air and Space
workers reattached the wings of each aircraft and
prepared and attached support cables for each
plane. Then moving slowly and carefully, crews
raised each airplane into its display position, making sure that none of the cables put uneven
stress on part of the airplane.
dimensional objects and stamps during the World’s
Columbus Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Spirited public reaction to these exhibits encouraged Postmaster
General John Wanamaker to commit the department
to the creation of a postal museum in its Washington,
D.C., facility. But sharing objects and history at an
exposition with an already-existing audience proved
easier than bringing an audience to the department’s
museum. By 1911 it was closed down.
Almost one-half of the objects in the now sheltered
collection had come from the Dead Letter Office.
Among the bounty recovered from undelivered packages were a pickled three-foot-long alligator, brass
knuckles, china plates, dolls and assorted other toys,
Bibles and a collection of false teeth.
These items had been displayed by postal officials
as a cabinet of curiosities. Smithsonian curators
accepted some of the Dead Letter Office items into the
Postmasters Advocate
(Above) Air and Space
workers reattach a wing to
the 1911 Wiseman-Cooke
air mail plane.
(Left) Air and Space workers
use a crane to help guide the
de Havilland DH-4B air mail
plane into position in the center of the museum’s atrium.
collection but declined most of the curiosities, including the pickled alligator. Among the other objects that
were accepted into the collection that year were models
of mail wagons, ships and postal cars, mailboxes and
mailbags, portraits of several Postmasters General, and
numerous mail locks, keys, canceling devices and other
operational items.
While the pickled alligator did not join the postal
history collection in 1911, the animal kingdom did not
go unrecognized. The Smithsonian added a small,
stuffed mixed breed dog to its collection that year.
Owney, the late 19th century mascot and companion of
Railway Post Office clerks, remains a popular attraction today.
Most of these new objects went into immediate
storage, but not all. As objects were added through the
Continued on page 6
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary • 5
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Postal History ... continued from page 5
Portrait of John Wanamaker,
Postmaster General of the
United States under President
Benjamin Harrison.
Wanamaker served from
1889-1893.
Curator and noted philatelist Catherine Manning was a
sure and steady hand behind
the development of the
Smithsonian’s National
Philatelic Collection.
The first philatelic exhibits
were on display in the
Smithsonian’s Arts and
Industries Museum. The collection remained there until its
move to the National Museum
of American History in 1964.
first half of the 20th century, the institution hired
curators to care for the growing collections of
stamps and the bits and pieces of postal history.
Joseph Leavy, named the first curator of this collection in 1911, created an exhibit of philatelic items in
the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building in
1915. Among the items on display were several
pieces from the old Post Office Department’s collection. Leavy did not rest at sharing the collection
with visitors to Washington. He conducted a series
of traveling lectures, taking items of the collection
with him to show to his audiences.
After his death in 1921, Leavy’s position was
filled by Catherine Manning, who continued those
duties from her appointment in 1922 to 1949.
During Manning’s tenure the philatelic collection
was moved from its home in the Division of History
and became a separate division, the Division of
Philately.
In the early 1960s two events kicked the
Smithsonian’s philatelic and postal history collections into high gear. In 1964 the National Museum
of American History and Technology (renamed the
National Museum of American History in 1980)
6 • National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
opened as the sixth Smithsonian museum on the
National Mall. Joining the museum’s inaugural
exhibits were collections of philatelic and postal
operations objects that made up the National
Philatelic Collection’s exhibit. Located in a corner
on the building’s third floor, the collection included
U.S. and foreign stamps in wooden pull-out frames
that covered two walls of the exhibition space.
Envelopes and objects showcasing the history of the
U.S. postal system filled cases throughout the rest
of that philatelic corner of the museum.
Before the new museum opened, the
Smithsonian’s postal and philatelic collections
received another major donation. In 1961, after a
second unsuccessful attempt to operate a postal
museum, the Post Office Department signed an
agreement to transfer a second large collection of
over 1,000 objects to the Smithsonian. In the
decades that followed that donation, the collection
continued to grow by leaps and bounds. Curators
added a treasure trove of objects, from rare stamps
and scholarly philatelic collections to a threewheeled mailster, a Highway Post Office bus and a
Continued on page 12
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Building a Horse
One of the hardest working groups
involved in helping to create the National
Postal Museum’s exhibits was the men and
women of the Smithsonian Office of Exhibits
Central. Among the wonderful items these
talented model makers and exhibit builders
created were a team of horses set to pulling
the museum’s restored 1851 Concord
stagecoach up a ramp in the Moving the
Mail exhibit.
Danny Fielding and Lora Collins were
the talents behind this equine quartet. The
museum’s stagecoach is shown in a theatrical setting, with four horses pulling it up a
ramp. The artists peppered the staff with
questions about the location, time of day
and season of the year to ensure these
models would be as accurate as possible.
Each horse began life as a
mere shadow of its future
self. An almost headless
horse begins to bulk up. As
artists begin painting the
horse, above, it begins to
look a bit more lively.
Far left: Of course, no
stagecoach horse is complete without harness and
gear. Bottom left: Each
horse was set in place
with the help of a small
crane. Finally, the horses
are in place and the stagecoach looks at home as it
races up the ramp.
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary • 7
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Postal Employees on
By Cheryl R. Ganz and Daniel Piazza
Many notable Americans have spent time working for
the Postal Service in their youth, including a few more who
have since found their way onto U.S. postage stamps. In
1914, Harry Truman was named the Postmaster of
Grandview, Missouri. Later in life, the president recalled
that he allowed a “widow woman” who was helping to raise her
sister’s children to serve as assistant Postmaster and pocket the
office’s monthly $50 pay. Truman’s stay in the office was short and, on
June 17 of the next year, the position was turned over to a new Postmaster.
Knute Rockne used the money he made working as a mail dispatcher in
the Chicago Post Office after graduating from high school to help pay college expenses when he enrolled at Notre Dame. Before Dr. Charles R.
Drew made a name for himself as a medical pioneer in blood transfusions,
he worked as a part-time special delivery messenger in Washington, D.C.
And only his co-workers know if the young Bing Crosby serenaded them
while working as a clerk in the Spokane, Washington, post office.
Putting Our Stamp on Education
Allison Wickens, Director of Education
Whether through the awe of a rare stamp, the familiarity of a LLV, the fascination
with mail processing or the emotional sentiment associated with sending a letter, visitors
to the National Postal Museum find connections to the objects and stories in our collection. In the education department, we facilitate those moments to inspire learning, selfexpression, memories and imagination. Our goal is always to provoke thinking about
mail, its systems, stamps and people in new and different ways.
One of the primary ways we achieve these goals is through our work with schools.
The museum offers programs for
We host thousands of local school children each year who attend one of our four tours:
families throughout the year.
Moving the Mail West, Stamp Stampede, Let’s Deliver the Mail, and Listen Look and
Do. During Stamp Stampede, the museum’s early elementary school tour, we help the kids re-enact the journey of a letter
from sender to receiver. The student selected as the Postmaster has the very important role of monitoring the progress of the
letter and has the proud responsibility of telling them all “job well done!” when the letter gets to its destination. This activity
supports classroom required subjects of community, economics, and literacy. Other topics of the tour (including stamp collecting and transportation) meet math and history school requirements.
In addition to school visits, we also develop materials for teachers to use in the classroom. People have downloaded
almost 40,000 of our curriculum guides including the object-based lesson plans we launched this year that feature the museum’s virtual vault: Arago™. As we develop these new programs for the web and the museum, we constantly rely on teacher
input to test and give input so they are appropriate for the classroom. As you may know from your own local school districts,
educators use mail, stamps and stories in creative ways to teach the basics of math, community, art and history.
We offer public programs year-round and it’s a great opportunity for you to see the department in action. We have
orchestrated lectures, workshops, movies, debates, and family programming. Even if there’s not a public program going on
during your next visit to the museum, you may encounter an educator working with a gallery cart, giving a tour, highlighting
an object, or asking visitors about their experiences. We work behind the scenes to ensure that museum exhibits speak to our
visitors, their experiences and their interests. Through these connections, we hope to inspire an extended interest or appreciation of all that goes into the mail. Your work continues to inform our interpretation in the education department of the
National Postal Museum.
8 • National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Stamps
Jane Addams (1860-1935)
Jane Addams pioneered social work in the United States when in 1889 she
and a friend opened the Hull-House settlement house in a Chicago
neighborhood of struggling immigrants. As a reformer, she strove to
improve the lives of industrial workers. Her initiatives promoted sani-
tary conditions, educational opportunity, women’s suffrage and international peace. She also served as Postmaster of the Hull-House sub-
station beginning in 1897. Multi-lingual Hull-House residents provided
window services most needed by the local immigrant neighbors.
Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Five years after her
death, the Post Office Department honored her on a 10-cent stamp in
the American Scientist series of the Famous Americans issue.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
President Abraham Lincoln’s first federal position was as Postmaster of New Salem, Illinois, a
short-lived mill town on the Sangamon River, from 1833 to 1836. Popular legend holds that he
excelled in the job and sometimes walked for miles to deliver letters he knew were urgent; however, a famous letter mailed from his post office on September 22, 1835, paints a different picture. It reads in part: "Post Master Mr. Lincoln is very careless about leaving his office open &
unlocked during the day—half the time I go in and get my papers, etc., without anyone being there as was the case yes-
terday.” The letter also suggests that Lincoln gave his friends free postage by signing his name and the word “Free” on the
face of their letters. The post office at New Salem was discontinued in 1836 and the town completely abandoned by 1840.
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
William Faulkner, the American novelist and recipient of the
1949 Nobel Prize for Literature, served as Postmaster of the
University of Mississippi postal substation in his hometown of
Oxford. From the spring of 1922 to the autumn of 1924, he
reportedly spent his work hours reading, drinking, playing cards,
losing mail and ignoring customers.
Faulkner offered his perspective on
having been Postmaster: “I reckon
I'll be at the beck and call of folks
with money all my life, but thank
God I won't ever again have to be at
the beck and call of every son of a
bitch who's got two cents to buy a
stamp.” The USPS honored the
author in 1987 with a First Class 22cent commemorative stamp.
Postmasters Advocate
Walt Disney (1901-1966)
After the U.S. entered World War I, 16-year old Walt
Disney dropped out of school and attempted to join
the army. Unsuccessful, he instead lied about his
age and got a job in the Chicago Post Office sorting
mail at night and delivering it during the day. He left
to join the Red Cross in France as an ambulance
driver, but when he returned, he did another post
office stint—this time in
Kansas City—as a seasonal carrier delivering
Christmas cards. In 1968,
the USPS released a 6-cent
commemorative postage
stamp featuring Disney and,
in 2003, the post office in
his home town of
Marceline, Missouri, was
renamed after him.
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary • 9
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
U.S. Post Office at Little America,
Antarctica, 1933-1935
W
By Lynn Heidelbaugh
Assistant Curator, National Postal Museum
ater dripped constantly from the
ice melting overhead and the heating was kept just barely warm enough to
keep ink from freezing. Such were the working conditions for the Post Office Department’s cancellation specialist Charles F.
Anderson, who was sent to run the first
United States Post Office in Antarctica.
Anderson worked in the science hall of
the base camp of Rear Admiral Richard E.
Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition along
side five other men in a 12- by 16-foot multipurpose room. The cramped space also contained a 21- by 16- by 18-inch safe to secure
money orders, stamps, cancellation dies and
other valuables. The combination safe, now
Postal worker Charles Anderson (left) at the cancellation machine in
in the collection of the Smithsonian National
the U.S. Post Office at Little America. Anderson, here accompanied by
Postal Museum, was marked conspicuously
Harold June of the expedition’s Aviation Department (right), canceled
with the site of its use: “U.S. Post Office
mail from January 19 to February 4, 1935. Courtesy of National Postal
Little America, South Pole.” The postal staMuseum Library, Smithsonian Institution Libraries
tion was officially established on October 6,
1933, at the Little America base, located on
the Ross Ice Shelf about 800 miles from the geographic South Pole.
The first installments of mail were shipped south in 1933 and were to be processed in 1934. Expedition
member Leroy Clark had been designated in charge of the postal duties in 1933, while the honorary postmaster, National Geographic Society Vice President Dr. John Oliver La Gorce, remained in Washington,
D.C. Clark fell behind processing the letters due to the cold, the ice, having to move work locations several
times, and equipment problems, including losing rollers on the cancellation machine. Charles Anderson
arrived at the southernmost U.S. post office in January 1935 to clear up the backlog and work the new sacks
of mail that traveled with him on the ship.
The polar postal station came about not to serve Byrd’s team, but rather for handling the philatelic mail
associated with Byrd’s Antarctic Expedition II. A three-cent postage stamp, issued on Oct. 9, 1933, celebrated this venture—depicting both the plans for the 1933-35 mission and the explorer’s previous achievements,
including the first flight to the South Pole in 1929.
The expedition provided the transportation for all the mail sent by collectors desiring to receive a cancellation mark from the bottom of the world. Senders posted their addressed envelopes for the shipments
south. To have their mail journey to and from one of the remotest spots on the planet, they had to enclose 3
cents for the commemorative postage stamp with a money order also covering the 50-cent fee payable to the
Byrd Antarctic Expedition.
According to Charles Anderson, more than 150,000 items were canceled at Little America, Antarctica.
10 • National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Describing his preparations for
postal duties in Antarctica,
Charles Anderson reported that:
“I am taking full post office
equipment with me. I have a
canceling machine, stamps,
paper, pencils, inks, envelopes—
in fact, everything that goes to
make up a first-class post office.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt sketched a
design for a 3-cent postage stamp commemorating the Byrd Antarctic Expedition II.
The cachet featuring two penguins was for mail that received
the second cancellation at Little America, Antarctica.
That included correspondence for both philatelic collectors and the expedition crew. He prepared the mail
for the voyage back north by securing it in waterproof paper, cartons, and double mail sacks that were
locked. The load went first by tractor-pulled dog sleds across the ice and finally by ship, reaching San
Francisco in March 1935.
Before leaving Little America, Anderson held a ceremony recorded on the expedition’s movie camera. He
summarized the event in his official report: “Into a box I put a copy of the Postal Laws and Regulations, a
postal guide, photographs of the Postmaster General and the First, Second, Third and Fourth Assistants,
Admiral Byrd and myself; three indelible lead pencils, a sponge cup and sponge, four blotters, a small can of
ink and a letter stating these articles had been left by a United States postal employee.”
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary • 11
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Postal History ... continued from page 6
modular small-town post office.
By the 1980s, it was obvious that the small corner of
the Museum of American History’s third floor was just
too tiny for this growing postal and philatelic collection.
The cramped corner had become inadequate and unfair
to the collection and the significant history that it represented. Following years of discussion, Secretary of the
Smithsonian Robert McC. Adams and Postmaster
General Anthony Frank signed an agreement creating the
National Postal Museum on November 6, 1990. In this
unprecedented move, the Smithsonian agreed to work
with a partner to establish and fund a national museum.
Space was located in Washington’s Old City Post Office
building, which was undergoing a complete renovation.
By the time the National Postal Museum opened on
July 30, 1993, it held millions of postal history items in
what had become the institution’s third most valuable
holding after the gem and coin collections. The museum
opened with a series of six exhibit galleries dedicated to
the history and development of the U.S. postal system.
Visitors were treated to intriguing objects and state-ofthe-art interactives and video presentations. Thousands
of visitors crammed into the museum on that hot summer day. Michael Kilian of the Chicago Tribune called
the museum “one of the most interesting to be found in
the capital.” Closer to home, Benjamin Forgey of the
Washington Post noted that the museum’s “stories are
both entertaining and important, demonstrating, in myriad ways, the profound impact of a system we often take
for granted.”
The museum has created more than 100 exhibits in
its lifetime! In addition to seeing the museum’s original
exhibits, visitors over the last 15 years have had the
opportunity to view a dizzying array of temporary
exhibits showcasing a wide range of themes mined from
the complex and intriguing history of America’s postal
system. In 1994 alone, the museum provided visitors
with a look at the experiences of a Jewish Hungarian
man escaping Nazi persecution through letters to his
wife in Unwelcome: Moritz Schonenberger and the S.S.
St. Louis and the colorful history of White House presidential greeting cards. Are We There Yet? Vacationing
in America offered a reflection on summer vacations
through a presentation of postcards from American
vacation destinations.
The next year, Jenny Class Reunion gave us the
opportunity to showcase 24 inverted Jenny stamps, the
largest number of such stamps ever displayed together.
In 1999, museum visitors learned that the famed
Titanic was a Royal Mail Ship in an exhibit devoted to
12 • National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Sheet of Confederate States of America stamps donated in 1886
the doomed ship’s five mail clerks.
There has been seemingly no limit to the stories the
Postal Museum has been able to tell through exhibition.
Mail service during the Alaskan gold rush, a soldier’s
experiences during the Mexican-American War, post
office buildings and murals, handmade mailboxes,
stamp designs, duck decoys (in conjunction with a display of waterfowl stamps), and even John Lennon’s
boyhood stamp album have all had their share of museum exhibition time and space.
Of course exhibits are only a part of the visitor experience. The museum’s Education Department offers
dozens of public programs, school tours, lectures and
presentations every year. They continually provide visitors with engaging activities that will be remembered
long after leaving the museum.
Staff works with teachers in many ways to help students get the most out of their museum visit. Among
the staff’s methods is working with teachers to design
pre- and post-visit materials that supplement and
enhance the students’ museum experience. While on
site, students are offered opportunities to develop their
skills in using primary sources to learn about the past.
And what primary sources we have to offer here! Not
only original documents, but also objects from stamps
and covers to mailboxes and vehicles.
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Plate proof of the $5 Columbian stamp.
The Post Office Department issued a
series of 16 stamps commemorating
Columbus’ voyage to America as part of
the 1883 World’s Columbian Exposition.
Pembina, Dakota Territory, post office
A mint block of four
John Lennon’s stamp album,
including the inside front cover
This snuff egg was one
of the Dead Letter Office
items given by the Post
Office Department to
the Smithsonian in
the 1911 transfer.
Exhibits are only part of the
visitor experience.The museum’s
education department provides
engaging activities for all ages ...
ones that will be remembered
long after leaving the museum.
In 2002 the museum established the Maynard Sundman
Lecture Series in honor of the late
father of David and Donald
Sundman. Since then, outstanding
philatelic speakers have presented
their research to enthusiastic audiences attending this series. The first Winton M. Blount
Symposium on Postal History was held in 2006 and continues to bring philatelists and postal historians together
in discussing a common theme, such as postal services
and the military, the topic of 2008’s symposium.
Not even a museum that spends so much space and
time examining history is without dreams and ambitions
for the future. Temporary and traveling exhibits have
helped the National Postal Museum be fresh, but the
time has come to look at renovating the museum’s core
exhibits. Even as we celebrate our anniversary, we
Postmasters Advocate
acknowledge that 15 years is a long
time for an exhibit to remain on
display. Through most of the 20th
century, museums could keep
exhibits up for 30 years or more
without feeling the need to change
them. Those days are gone! The
museum is dedicated to keeping the visitors’ experience
fresh and exciting. This means updating exhibits through
fresh research, new ideas and the latest techniques to
better engage and educate the audience.
In preparation for such dramatic changes, the
National Postal Museum curatorial staff consulted with
experts in a variety of fields to help determine the new
topics, themes, design and technology for these galleries.
The group included representatives from the postal and
mailing industry, the U.S. Postal Service and its employ-
Continued on page 14
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary • 13
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Postal History ... continued from page 13
ee associations, Department of Defense, Smithsonian
through a complex system of transportation, automaInstitution scholars, academic historians, and experts
tion, and modern technological wonders, the post office
in a variety of fields such as railway, aviation, and
has always functioned through a network of individuals,
communication.
policies, technologies and systems. Helping to complete
Over the past few years, work has begun on this
this multi-year exhibition facelift will be the renovation
project. Moving the Mail, located in the museum’s
of the museum’s philatelic galleries in 2012.
spectacular atrium space, has seen a number of
American museums have traveled a long road since
changes, including the addiCharles Peale opened his
American
museums
have
traveled
a
tion of exhibits examining the
American museum featuring
history of city postal vehicles,
War portraits,
long road since Charles Peale opened Revolutionary
the Star Route and Airmail
animal displays and cabinets
services.
of curiosities to the
his American museum featuring
A collection of exhibit galPhiladelphia public in 1786.
Revolutionary War portraits, animal New technology enables
leries is planned under the title
People and the Post. The seven displays and cabinets of curiosities to museums to supplement visigalleries in this group will be
tor experiences inside and
the
Philadelphia
public
in
1786.
opened one by one over a span
outside the building in ways
of approximately five years. As
that Peale and his contempomuch as possible, the galleries also will be made available raries could not have imagined.
in online versions. Wireless connections would give visiFor instance, today’s visitors have the option of
tors the opportunity to download features from the
extending their visit at home or in school through the
museum for use when they return home. Through such
Internet. But even with the most advanced technology,
efforts, the museum is seeking to encourage visitors to
the experience of coming face to face with our past and
maintain connections between themselves and the muse- our culture continues to be a core expectation of the
um even after they leave.
museum visit. The director and staff of the National
The new exhibit galleries will share the overall
Postal Museum are proud of all that has been accomtheme of connection, which is to say, “Mail Connects
plished over the last 15 years and are eager to share the
Everyone.” In addition, the galleries will be tied togethaction and drama of America’s postal history and the
er through two critical, and shared, concepts,
beauty and lore of America’s stamps with you and your
“Universal Service” and “Network.” The museum will
families in the years to come.
explore the long-held postal mandate of universal service and how the ideal of mail to everyone, everywhere,
has impacted postal operations. The concept of the network demonstrates that whether by horse and rider or
This truck cab,
built specially for
the museum, is a
draw for children
of all ages who
love climbing into
the driver’s seat!
The truck is part
of the museum’s
new exhibit on
the Star Route
Service,
“Networking a
Nation.”
14 • National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
This Ford Model A parcel post truck is part of the “On the
Road” exhibit, the first renovation in the atrium exhibits.
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Behind the Scenes in Postal Museum Collections Storage
S
By Elizabeth Schorr
ince the National Postal Museum opened its doors on Massachusetts Avenue in 1993, dedicated staff and volunteers have worked “behind the scenes” to continue the legacy of preserving and making its collections available to the general public. This long history initially began during the years the collection was housed within
the National Museum of American History. There, the collection shared space with its research library. As you can
see from the accompanying photographs, as the collection grew, space to house the objects, stamps, and books
became quite cramped. Many of the collections’ larger objects, such as the vehicles and stamp production equipment, were stored at several warehouses spread throughout Virginia and Maryland. With the establishment of the
National Postal Museum came the opportunity to expand storage and work space for these collections.
In 1992, the museum began moving into its new facility across from Union Station. Suddenly the collections had
space to spread out and grow. Staff initiated a plan to systematically rehouse collection objects in new archival
boxes and folders. New museum-quality cabinets were acquired to store the boxes and three-dimensional objects.
The additional space included a conservation lab and workspace for specialized object conservation treatment. This
is the only conservation lab in the world devoted exclusively to philatelic and postal history collections. An area for
object photography and scanning has been developed to better document the collection and provide images for the
museum’s online database Arago.
In the past two years, the museum set in motion plans to consolidate many of its off-site storage facilities. Utilizing
storage space provided by the USPS in Washington, D.C., the museum has moved numerous crated objects and paintings into this new space. Staff has been working at this facility to uncrate objects, catalog and photograph them, and
then rehouse them in archival storage materials. This process has greatly
increased access for the museum’s curators to objects that were previously
inaccessible and hidden. Images of some of
the objects can been found in Arago.
In addition, this year the museum
received funding from a special
Smithsonian Institution grant to support
the installation of a mobile shelving storage system in the collections vault. This
will increase the museum’s storage capacity with museum-quality cabinets and
shelves that can be “compacted” or compressed, thus maximizing the existing
space. In addition, the closed cabinets will
replace rows of open shelving that store
many of the museum’s specialized stamp
collections.
By placing these albums and boxes in
closed cabinets, the objects will be better
protected for long-term preservation. The
( Above) View of the philatelic and
new shelving also will facilitate efforts to
postal
history storage space showorganize storage of similar objects and
ing the crowded conditions at the
materials closer together, rather than
National Museum of American
spread out throughout storage.
History. (Right) This open shelving
Behind the scenes work at the Postal
in the Postal Museum storage space
will soon be replaced with a comMuseum will always be an ongoing projpacting storage system, increasing
ect. The next 15 years will undoubtedly
the room’s storage capacity.
bring more changes and enhancements
(Top) Collections staff member
that will continue the stewardship of
Caitlin Badowski catalogs objects
these collections for researchers and the
in an off-site storage facility progeneral public.
vided by the U.S. Postal Service.
Postmasters Advocate
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary • 15
National Postal Museum 15th Anniversary
Smithsonian
National
Postal
Museum
2 Massachusetts Ave. NE
Washington DC 20002
(202) 633-5555
www.postalmuseum.si.edu
People and the Post
Among the museum’s most ambitious future plans is the renovation of its core exhibition spaces. The following seven galleries are in the planning stages. Systems at Work and Portrait
of the Postal Worker currently are scheduled to open in 2011.
Community & the Post
Communities form through the mail and at the post office. This
gallery will look at the role of the post office in building and
sustaining communities, as well as finding or excluding them.
This is a role that has been played both locally and nationally.
Connecting a Nation
This gallery will set the stage for the other exhibits by offering
a brief history of the postal system in America. It is an introduction to the history of the postal system—the people, the
infrastructure, and the value of communication.
The Business of Mail
Mail is a dynamic commercial conduit for consumers,
companies, and nonprofit organizations who use and supply
the system. Mail has long been a lifeline of American commerce. This gallery will exhibit the relationship between
business and the postal system.
Portrait of the Postal Worker
Postal employees are the heart and soul of the postal network
and the personal connection between individuals and their
mail. This gallery is dedicated to the men and women who
move the U.S. mail.
Systems at Work
A national network of mail processing and distribution connects every mailbox. This gallery will trace the evolution of
moving mail from sender to receiver, from the Colonial post
to present.
The Future of Mail
The final gallery in the museum’s People and the Post renovation project will address the future of the postal system.
Just as the postal network has faced many challenges in the
past, there are many more yet to come. Exhibits in this
gallery will look at those challenges and try to provide
direction and answers with the aid of experts in a number
of postal service and industry fields.
Mail Call
Mail provides military personnel a vital communication link to
their communities. Mail Call will examine the history of military mail through the lens of America’s conflicts. From the
Revolutionary War to the present, mail maintains ties between
troops and their family and friends back home.
An early design rendering of
Portrait of the Postal Worker,
one of the seven new galleries in
the People and the Post
renovation plan.
A Tribute on the 15th Anniversary
of the National Postal Museum in
Washington, DC, and sponsored
by the National League
of Postmasters
National League of Postmasters
5904 Richmond Hwy., Suite 500
Alexandria VA 22303-1864
(703) 329-4550
www.postmasters.org