- Visit
- Location and Directions
- Calendar of Events
- Museum Tours & Itineraries
- Museum Highlights
- Virtual Tours
- Video Tours
- What Our Visitors Are Saying
- Museum Store
- School Field Trips
- Accessibility
- ALERTS from the Office of Protection Services
FACTS
Open every day
(except December 25)10:00 am to 5:30 pm
Admission is always free!
Street Address:
National Postal Museum
2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E.
Washington, DC 20002
Tel: (202) 633-5555MAP
- Collections
- Collection Database
- Collection History
- Collection Plan
- Collection Projects
- Object Donations
- Object Loans
- Object Spotlights
- Photographic Archives
- Preservation
The national collection illustrates and invites research into United States philately and postal operations. It contains prestigious postal issues and specialized collections, archival postal documents and three-dimensional objects that trace the evolution of the postal services.
- Exhibits
The National Postal Museum is divided into galleries that explore America's postal history from colonial times to the present. Visitors learn how mail has been transported and the wondrous diversity of postage stamps.
- Research
- Museum Library
- Appointments to Research Objects
- Maynard Sundman Lecture Series
- Symposiums and Lectures
- Research Funding
- Industry White Papers
- Finding Guides
- Research Articles
- Articles from EnRoute
- Topical Reference Pages
- State Postal History Registry
- Smithsonian Magazine Online
- External Research Links
The Museum supports a wide variety of interdisciplinary research projects which address topics of importance such as current and future postal operations, as well as philatelic and postal history. Our efforts are a resource and point of reference for research and wider investigation by historians throughout the United States and the world.
Museum Highlights
Object Spotlights
Learn more about objects in the museum’s collections. From the tiniest stamps to a full-sized bus, the museum is home to a wide variety of fascinating objects.
Special Themes
Browse these pages to discover resources organized by topic, such as African Americans in the Postal Service and Philately, Airmail Service, or Civil War.
Philately
Stamp collecting helps instruct the collector in geography, biography, history, culture and art. Stamps are miniature gateways to the world.
Postal Operations
From small uniform buttons to a massive Highway Post Office bus, objects in the National Postal Museum’s collections chart the history and development of the U.S. postal system.
Memory Book
Join the National Postal Museum in creating a comprehensive history of America’s post and people.
