Unprecedented Opportunity

Located just blocks from the U.S. Capitol, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum is home to the world’s largest museum philatelic collection. This renowned collection includes more unique and iconic U.S. stamps than any other postal museum in the nation.

Through its exhibitions and programs, the museum spreads the love of philately, generates excitement about the popular hobby of stamp collecting, and allows millions of people to examine rare philatelic gems that would not otherwise be accessible.

Now the museum has an extraordinary opportunity—a chance to expand into a magnificent space that befits its world-class collection. This new space will enable the National Postal Museum to reach its full potential by dramatically increasing the collection’s visibility, advancing its educational mission, and reinvigorating public interest in philately.

Museum Director Allen Kane
Above: Museum Director Allen
Kane
“No other museum possesses the breadth, depth, and historical value of stamps as does the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. In the past century, the national collection in the Smithsonian’s care has grown from a handful of rare stamps to over six million valuable objects. The National Postal Museum’s collection 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.

The National Postal Museum is building on the Smithsonian’s 120-year history of national stewardship of stamps and the National Postal Museum’s 16-year tradition of exhibition excellence and public engagement with bold plans for the future to build a new Stamp Gallery, which will add 9,000 square feet of exhibit space to the existing museum and give visitors direct access to the museum from Massachusetts Avenue. It will feature a welcome center for the National Postal Museum, an education center, and philatelic galleries.

The William H. Gross Stamp Gallery will educate and inspire people of all ages through exhibits that feature stamps as a window to the American experience, emphasizing the ways stamps and mail have had an impact on every American’s life.

Through the authoritative display of stamps, mail, and related objects, and supported by the National Postal Museum online research tool Arago, the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery will provide a dynamic visitor experience and position the museum as the national and international center of philately.”

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