Things to do / Travel Guide
Address:2 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, District of Columbia
Tel:
(202) 633-1000
Celebrate the history of the National Postal Service! Learn how mail has been transported over the years and spotlight the creation of letters as well as the diversity of postage stamps!
A Smithsonian Institution museum, the National Postal Museum, located in the old Post Office building next to Union Station in Washington, D.C., occupies 75,000 square feet, and houses a 6,000-square-foot research library, a stamp store and a museum shop. A visit to this museum is actually a pleasant hour spent for the whole family with interesting exhibits, including postal-themed video games and 3 planes suspended from the 90-foot-high atrium ceiling that carried mail in the early 20th century, and which everyone will enjoy seeing. There's a real railway mail car, an 1851 mail/passenger coach, and a replica of an airmail beacon tower, all part of the "Moving the Mail" exhibit. "On the Road" explores the history of city mail vehicles, such as the 1931 Ford Model-A mail truck on display, and several exhibits deal with the Pony Express, which lasted less than 2 years but was romanticized to legendary proportions by Buffalo Bill among others.
Visitors can enjoy free walk-in tours at the information desk and the National Postal Museum also offers workshops, films, family programs, and lectures. And if you get hungry while here, don't fret! The Irish Times Pub, Bistro 525, and Cafe Bar & Grill, are all nearby and serve up great eats.
To get to the National Postal Museum, take the Red Line to Union Station. Leave through the Massachusetts Avenue exit. As you get off the escalator, the National Postal Museum will be across the street. Be sure to bring your address book and you can send a postcard to the folks back home through an interactive exhibit that issues a cool postcard and stamps it!
From National Postal Museum:
The national collection illustrates and invites research into United States philately and postal operations. It contains prestigious U. S. and international postal issues and specialized collections, archival postal documents and three-dimensional objects that trace the evolution of the postal services.