The National Postal Museum
Oct 26th 2011 08:15:28 am
“Messenger of sympathy and love
Servant of parted friends
Consoler of the lonley
Bond of the scattered family
Enlarger of the common life”
The words above are etched above the door to the National Postal Museum in Washington DC. Travis and I visited the museum last year and I have been meaning to report back on our trip ever since!
The National Postal Museum, a Smithsonian Institution museum, is located in the old 1914 Post Office building next to Union Station in Washington, D.C. The Museum was created by an agreement between the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Postal Service in 1990 and opened to the public in 1993. The Museum is dedicated to the preservation, study and presentation of postal history and philately.
Some United States Postal Service History:
- In January, 1673, the first post rider used Native American trails between New York and Boston.
- Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Post Master General in 1775.
- The National Philatelic (stamp) Collection was established at the Smithsonian in 1886 with the donation of a sheet of 10-cent Confederate postage stamps.
- 600,000,000 pieces of mail are processed in the US each day!!
- As of 2004, there were 188,613 postal delivery vehicles in the United States.
In addition to one of the world’s largest collections of stamps and philatelic materials, the National Postal Museum has postal history material that pre-dates stamps, vehicles used to transport the mail, mailboxes and mailbags, postal uniforms and equipment. You can view much of the collection on the “Arago” museum website.
One of my favorite items in the collection is Owney, the Railway Mail Service mascot from the late 19th century. Owney was a scruffy mutt who became a regular fixture at the Albany, New York, post office in 1888. Owney was attracted to the texture or scent of the mailbags and he began to ride with the bags on Railway Post Office (RPO) train cars across the state, and then the country! In 1895 Owney made an around-the-world trip, traveling with mailbags on trains and steamships to Asia and across Europe, before returning to Albany. Railway mail clerks considered the dog a good luck charm. At a time when train wrecks were all too common, no train Owney rode was ever in a wreck. You can buy Owney stamps and even follow him on Twitter!
Obviously, I am a snail mail fan, so I really enjoyed our visit to the National Postal Museum, but I think nearly anyone would find it interesting. You can view the museum in about an hour and learn a lot about the US Postal Service. There are plenty of stamps on exhibit, but there are also airmail planes, stagecoaches, mail safety and postal inspection tools, historic letters, and more. I recommend visiting if you are even in DC!
Have you visited the National Postal Museum? What was your favorite item on view?
2 Comments » Categories: General, Swappy Goodness
AndrewLips (seen to the right playing guitar) hosted the event and sent this report:
