Smithsonian National Postal Museum

Smithsonian National Postal Museum America's history is in the mail. Welcome to our page! Be aware that Facebook is a third-party website with its own terms of use and privacy policy.
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Please feel free to share thoughts about our posts, ask us questions, or tell us about your visit. We hope you’ll contribute to this interactive forum and to our ongoing conversation about the work we do to further the Smithsonian's mission to increase and diffuse knowledge. While on-topic discussion is encouraged, we ask that you express yourself in a civil manner and treat other users with respe

ct. The National Postal Museum also monitors this page and may remove posts consistent with the Smithsonian's terms of use, as described at http://si.edu/Termsofuse -gen. The Smithsonian does not control Facebook’s collection, use, or dissemination of information. To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, do not include any personally identifiable information that you do not wish to be made available to the general public. In addition, the Smithsonian may archive materials posted on this website pursuant to its document retention policies. By posting content, you are giving the Smithsonian and those authorized by the Smithsonian permission to use or modify it for any educational, promotional, or other standard museum purpose, in media of all kinds whether now known or later developed. Any data that users post on this site or that the Smithsonian collects from this site is subject to our terms of use and privacy policies which can be found at: http://www.si.edu/termsofuse/ and http://www.si.edu/privacy/.

The 3rd Monday in January was designated a Federal holiday in 1986 in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and leg...
01/21/2025

The 3rd Monday in January was designated a Federal holiday in 1986 in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy. During the 1950s and 60s, King spearheaded mass action through marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and nonviolent demonstrations that profoundly impacted American attitudes toward racial prejudice and discrimination. In 1963, King became the first African-American honored as TIME magazine’s Man of the Year, and in 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

His life was cut tragically short, but his words and actions endure. King was featured on two U.S. postage stamps in 1979 and 1999. This is the approved concept art (painted by Keith Birdsong) for the 1999 USPS postage stamp commemorating Dr. King and his indelible speech at the March on Washington in 1963. A trace of light on the horizon symbolizes hope, while King gazes resolutely upward.

Loan from the United States Postal Service, Postmaster General's Collection.
©USPS; all rights reserved.

It’s a New Year, and we're starting 2025 by saying THANK YOU to everyone who gave during our Year-End Matching Gift Chal...
01/11/2025

It’s a New Year, and we're starting 2025 by saying THANK YOU to everyone who gave during our Year-End Matching Gift Challenge! Because of our community of postal history champions, the Museum had its most successful year-end campaign in 5 years!!!

The entire Postal Museum is grateful for the generosity of our community. Your gifts will help us educate, challenge, and inspire every visitor who walks through our doors or visits us online this year. We will develop new and exciting programs, events, and exhibits that expand the stories of American history we can tell through the mail. And as we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States Postal Service this summer, these generous gifts are more important now than ever.

Thank you again for your generosity and commitment to the Postal Museum. We hope to see you onsite or online this year!

The National Postal Museum is open today from 10:00 am - 5:30 pm. Plan your visit at postalmuseum.si.edu.
01/08/2025

The National Postal Museum is open today from 10:00 am - 5:30 pm. Plan your visit at postalmuseum.si.edu.

Due to inclement weather, Smithsonian museums in the DC area, including the National Zoo, will be closed to the public today, Tuesday, January 7.

Issued in 2021, the Otters in Snow Forever stamps feature four scenes of alert and playful North American river otters reveling in a snowy landscape.

©️USPS. All rights reserved.

Due to inclement weather, Smithsonian museums in the DC area, including the National Zoo, will be closed to the public t...
01/07/2025

Due to inclement weather, Smithsonian museums in the DC area, including the National Zoo, will be closed to the public today, Tuesday, January 7.

Issued in 2021, the Otters in Snow Forever stamps feature four scenes of alert and playful North American river otters reveling in a snowy landscape.

©️USPS. All rights reserved.

Due to inclement weather, Smithsonian museums in the DC area, including the National Zoo, will be closed to the public t...
01/06/2025

Due to inclement weather, Smithsonian museums in the DC area, including the National Zoo, will be closed to the public today, Monday, January 6.

Happy New Year from your friends at the National Postal Museum! Best wishes to all!This stamp, designed by Carl Herrman ...
01/01/2025

Happy New Year from your friends at the National Postal Museum! Best wishes to all!

This stamp, designed by Carl Herrman and illustrated by J.C. Leyendecker, was issued in December 1999.

© USPS; all rights reserved.

12/31/2024

Before you celebrate New Year’s Eve, will you take a moment to make double the impact at the National Postal Museum? There are just hours remaining in our year-end matching gift challenge, and so many supporters have already shown their commitment to this history museum like no other with generous donations. But we still need you.

Will you join your fellow philanthropic leaders? Your gift of any amount, made by 11:59 TONIGHT, will be matched dollar-for-dollar by our Council of Philatelists and go twice as far as we prepare for another year of sharing the story of America through the mail.

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/support

This tranquil “Western Barn on a Winter's Night” postcard stamp was released by USPS in 2021 as one of four celebrating ...
12/31/2024

This tranquil “Western Barn on a Winter's Night” postcard stamp was released by USPS in 2021 as one of four celebrating the beauty and history of American barns with digital paintings of four types of iconic barns found in the rural American landscape. Ashley Walton designed the stamps with original artwork by Kim Johnson. Greg Breeding was the art director.

©USPS. All rights reserved.

2024 is rapidly coming to a close, and with it, your chance to double your impact at the National Postal Museum. Just fi...
12/27/2024

2024 is rapidly coming to a close, and with it, your chance to double your impact at the National Postal Museum. Just five days remain in our year-end matching gift challenge!

We’ve enjoyed sharing the impact that supporters like you had at the Museum this year, and as 2024 ends, we hope you consider what legacy you want to leave. The Postal Museum is often described as a hidden gem, but you have found us. You know there’s more to the Museum than stamps. You know we commemorate and celebrate American stories through the mail. And, you know we are a history museum like no other. Now is your chance to help others find this hidden gem and ensure your story is told.

Don’t wait – give any amount by 11:59 PM on Tuesday, December 31st and our Council of Philatelists will match your gift dollar-for-dollar.

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/support

Happy Kwanzaa! A weeklong secular celebration of family, community, culture, and prosperity, Kwanzaa was established by ...
12/27/2024

Happy Kwanzaa! A weeklong secular celebration of family, community, culture, and prosperity, Kwanzaa was established by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966 and is based on African first-harvest traditions. The United States Postal Service has issued many beautiful stamps celebrating Kwanzaa. Learn more in our virtual exhibition "Sharing the Timeless Principles of Kwanzaa."

Virtual Exhibit Kwanzaa takes place over seven days from December 26 to January 1. Kwanzaa is a non-religious, African-American holiday symbolizing the need for a harmonious and principled togetherness in the family, the neighborhood, the nation, and the world. This virtual exhibit is a collaboratio...

Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating today! This delicate sachet is marked with a tag from the Dead Letter Office....
12/26/2024

Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating today! This delicate sachet is marked with a tag from the Dead Letter Office. Unfortunately, for reasons not indicated, the Post Office Department could not complete the delivery of this item and so it ended up in purgatory with all the other undeliverable items at the Dead Letter Office. We can surmise that it was missing an address, or perhaps it had an address tag at one point that was subsequently lost, or maybe it fell out of a parcel. Or could the misspelling have been the deal breaker? The world may never know...but at least we can appreciate the sentiment!

The embroidered satin sachet carries the following "Christmas Wish:"
“The Christmas bells are pealing,
Of Hope and Joy to-day;
Softly thier [sic] music’s stealing,
Oe’r thy bright and sunny way.”

This object is classified as circa 1850-1920.

Happy Hanukkah to all beginning their celebrations tonight! The newest Hanukkah stamp was issued by USPS on October 6, 2...
12/26/2024

Happy Hanukkah to all beginning their celebrations tonight! The newest Hanukkah stamp was issued by USPS on October 6, 2020. For the digitally illustrated stamp depicting a fully-lit menorah, artist Jing Jiong Tsong selected colors meant to convey the experience of Hanukkah through the eyes of a child.

Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for "dedication." Tradition relates how a miracle took place during the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by conquering armies. The sacramental oil, thought to be enough for only one day, burned for eight days. 🕎

©USPS; all rights reserved.

We’re welcoming winter with one of our favorite issues of all time: the 2017 “Snowy Day” postage stamps, featuring Ezra ...
12/22/2024

We’re welcoming winter with one of our favorite issues of all time: the 2017 “Snowy Day” postage stamps, featuring Ezra Jack Keats’ Peter playing his way through the coldest season in his iconic red snowsuit.

“The Snowy Day,” published in 1962, is a beloved and enduring story that has sold over 10 million copies and has been translated into 12 languages since its release. Unlike most popular children’s authors at the time, Keats made a point to feature ethnically and racially diverse characters in his work. Using a series of 1940 Life magazine photographs of a young African-American boy as inspiration, Keats began writing “The Snowy Day.” Using paper collage, fabric, stamps and India ink, he crafted the unique look of the story’s wintry urban landscape.

We wish you all warmth in the cold, and light in the darkness!

© U.S. Postal Service. All rights reserved.

“We were segregated two ways, because we were black and because we were women.”—Major Charity Adams Earley, Commander of...
12/21/2024

“We were segregated two ways, because we were black and because we were women.”
—Major Charity Adams Earley, Commander of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

At a time when the United States Military remained segregated, the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion – part of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps – played an important role overseas during World War II. One of the first all-African American, all-women battalion to serve overseas, the 6888s deployed first to Birmingham, England then later to Rouen, France. Overseas, letters from the home front had sat undelivered in temporary post offices for as long as two years. The women were charged with processing mail sent to the approximately seven million American troops stationed in Europe. Morale is one of the main factors that can help or cripple an army, and the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion facilitated a much-needed boost.

Members of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion can be seen here working with French civilians to clear the backlog of American military mail in Europe, 1945. Image courtesy U.S. Army Women's Museum Archives.

#6888

This season of gratitude, we’re thanking the donors and supporters who have made their (post) mark on the Museum this ye...
12/18/2024

This season of gratitude, we’re thanking the donors and supporters who have made their (post) mark on the Museum this year.

In 2024, the Postal Museum welcomed over 200,000 visitors through our doors and had over 1.4 website visits, one of our busiest years ever. We are thrilled to welcome more guests, both onsite and digital, every year, since these visits allow us to engage directly with curious learners and help them make connections to the past through the mail. Whether guiding groups through the galleries to find a favorite item or helping researchers navigate our vast online collection, our dedicated team strives to create a positive and welcoming experience for each and every visitor, and they could not do so without your support. Thank you!

Want to support more in-person and virtual visits to the Museum next year and make your (post) mark this holiday season? Consider a gift to the National Postal Museum. Donations of any amount made by December 31 will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling your impact! https://postalmuseum.si.edu/support

Address

2 Massachusetts Avenue
Washington D.c., NE
20002

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 10am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 10am - 5:30pm
Thursday 10am - 5:30pm
Friday 10am - 5:30pm
Saturday 10am - 5:30pm
Sunday 10am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+12026335555

Website

http://postalmuseum.si.edu/, http://postalmuseumblog.si.edu/

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