It is housed in this large building, dating back to 1911-14, right next to Union Station. When you enter the museum, you're in this large hall exactly as it was back when the building functioned as a post office. Then you take an escalator down to the exhibits about how the postal system works and how cool stamps are. Compared to the larger Smithsonian museums, it can leave one wanting more. There are only a handful of exhibits about how mail was delivered by various transportation ranging from trains, planes, cars, horseback, and even dogsleds. Did you know that people used to mail their laundry? I learned that at the museum.
Really the highlight of this tiny museum is the Stamp room, which is about 10x15 feet with about 200 panels full of stamps from around the world. It is just fascinating to pull out a panel of stamps from Bulgaria dating back to the 1880's and see how stamps progressed up through the 1960s. My favorite are the panels from Russia, given my background in Russian. Looking through each panel, you can see themes of stamps and what they found important at the time.To the Soviet Union, these stamps were little propaganda pieces and you see Lenin and Stalin on stamps way past their deaths. You can even see it on those countries that were under their influence. But enough of the history lesson.
Fun fact: there is a functioning post office inside the museum. And the gift shop sells 500 mystery stamp bags and packs of themed stamps. It is like my Disney World.
I like this museum because it is off the beaten path of Smithsonian museums. It is very quiet and not overwhelming with the number of people milling around. They are currently building a stamp gallery on the upper floor, which I think will be a great addition to display the stamps they have in storage. So I will definitely be coming back to this museum. Okay, I've finished geeking out about stamps.
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