12/9/2006: Season's Greetings Family Day

‘Tis the season to celebrate. Museum visitors of all ages enjoyed making holiday stamp collections, reading winter mail stories, and creating festive greeting cards.

Image: Kim McCray, public programs coordinator at the National Postal Museum, listens to a young visitor as he creates and explains his holiday card creation to her and his mother.

11/5-6/2006: Delayed Legacy Lecture,
Book Signing and Conservation Demonstration

Author Conrad Netting came to the Postal Museum November 5 and 6 to explain how letters led him to uncover the true story of his father, a World War II pilot, and the French town where he died.

Image: Author Conrad Netting and Keith, a museum visitor, pose by the banner for Netting’s book Delayed Legacy.

11/3-4/2006: Winton M. Blount Symposium on Postal History

Rarely do scholars of postal organizations and systems meet and discuss their ideas and research with scholars of philately. In an attempt to bridge this gap, the National Postal Museum and the American Philatelic Society hosted a national conference on November 3 and 4, 2006, to bring together these two research groups.

Image (top): Postmaster General John Potter presented the Winton M. Blount Award of Excellence to Murray B. Comarow during the Friday evening session.
Image (bottom): Michael O'Reilly was one of numerous panelists during the Saturday session, speaking here about his data access project for the Official Register.

10/21/2006: The Fifth Annual Sundman Lecture: The Miller Collection and the Era of Private Bank Note Company Stamps 1842-1892

Writer, researcher and auctioneer Scott Trepel guided the audience on a tour of the classic era of U.S. philately, displaying examples from The New York Public Library's legendary Benjamin K. Miller collection. Trepel is author of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum exhibit catalogue, Rarity Revealed: The Benjamin K. Miller Stamp Collection.

Image: Trepel autographs his book Rarity Revealed: The Benjamin K. Miller Collection for Leonard Kapiloff, a third generation philatelist.

 • Sundman Lectures >>

9/28/2006: Heritage Highlights: Frida Kahlo

After listening to the story Frida by Jonah Winter and viewing a postage stamp featuring Frida Kahlo in the museum’s stamp gallery, this young visitor enjoyed the opportunity to become an artist like Frida. Following in Frida’s footsteps, this artist used bright colors and painted what he saw.

Image: Museum visitor with paints

8/14/2006: Longtime Museum Benefactor
Jeanette C. Rudy Donates Rare Duck Stamp Collection

In a special ceremony the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum received a significant donation of Federal Duck Stamps from longtime museum benefactor Jeanette C. Rudy of Nashville, Tennessee. Rudy’s collection, which took more than 50 years to assemble, is widely considered to be the finest private collection of its type. This donation greatly enhances and strengthens the museum's duck stamp collection. The signing ceremony for the deed of gift was held at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.

Image: Mrs. Jeanette Rudy signs the deed of gift, National Postal Museum Registrar, Ted Wilson, is seated at right.

7/27/2006: Marvelous Ways to Move Mail Festival

Visitors explored methods used to move mail throughout American history. They learned about mail trucks, airplanes, dog sleds and the iron horse and, discovered how to communicate when moving the mail via horn, beacons, and whistles.

Image (top): Visitors play the Mail Delivery Challenge game at the Marvelous Ways to Move Mail Festival.
Image (bottom): Museum Intern Alyson Turley teaches visitors all about pneumatic tube mail and missile mail while they create their own.

7/15/2006: Rarity Revealed Family Day

Visitors enjoyed learning about Benjamin K. Miller, the first man to ever collect a complete collection of U.S. postage stamps, made a collection of their own, explored the idea of what makes a stamp rare, and then visited the Rarity Revealed exhibit featuring artifacts from Mr. Miller's Collection.

Image: Rarity Revealed Family Day museum visitors

5/27-6/3/2006: National Postal Museum at Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition

Tens of thousands of stamp enthusiasts traveled to Washington DC for the Washington 2006 International Philatelic Exhibition. This event, which happens in the United States only once every ten years, and was an exciting opportunity for the National Postal Museum to reach thousands of philatelists through the museum's super-booth at Washington 2006 (pictured at left), as well as a packed schedule of programs and events at the National Postal Museum. Among the week's highlights:
 •National Postal Museum objects were displayed in the prestigious Court of Honor at Washington 2006. Space in the Court of Honor is limited to a very few elite exhibits; throughout Washington 2006, there was always a line to get in to view the Court of Honor exhibits.
 •An exhibit on the "Hindenburg" by Cheryl Ganz, a curator of philately at the National Postal Museum, was displayed in the Court of Honor.
 •The museum's booth at Washington 2006 had a kiosk dedicated to Arago™, the museum's new online collection database, which featured several computers and a large demonstration screen. Museum staff and volunteers gave demonstrations and helped new users try Arago™ for themselves. A panel discussion on Arago™ (pictured at lower, left) drew a large audience.
 •Through daily “Meet the Experts” programs in the museum's booth, Washington 2006 attendees were given access to National Postal Museum staff and their wealth of knowledge on topics ranging from preserving stamps and documents to the history of the postal system.
 •The museum proudly hosted book signings by philatelic experts Scott R. Trepel and Ken Lawrence. Trepel and Lawrence autographed copies of the companion book to the exhibition Rarity Revealed: The Benjamin K. Miller Collection. The book, written by Trepel with Lawrence, contains more than 400 color images and is considered the definitive publication on the Miller Collection.
 •In addition, visitors to the National Postal Museum booth viewed John Lennon's boyhood stamp album and picked up a wide variety of giveaways—including the hugely popular NPM chocolates and Arago™ mousepads—as well as handouts with information on the National Postal Museum and the National Postal Museum Library.

Images (first and second): National Postal Museum Booth at Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition
Images (third): Arago kiosk at Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition
Images (fourth): Arago Panel Discussion

5/28-6/3/2006: Stamptacular!

In honor of the Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition, the museum offered a full week of “Stamptacular!” public programs—seven consecutive days of different programs highlighting the variety of objects in the museum's collections and exhibitions. Topics covered included New York Public Library’s Benjamin K. Miller Collection, Marvelous Ways to Move Mail, Portrait of a Collector, Postal Heroes, and Mail Service, Mascots and More.

Images: Stamptacular! visitors

5/27/2006: Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Awards Gala

The 2006 Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Awards Gala Dinner honored three very deserving philatelists, Guido Craveri, Francis Kiddle and Herbert A. Trenchard at the National Postal Museum on Saturday, May 27. The award recipients were selected by the Museum's Council of Philatelists, a 33-member body of US and International dealers and collectors. [Read more about the Awards] Highlights of the evening were the launch of Arago™, the museum's new online database, and the ribbon cutting opening of the exhibition, Rarity Revealed: The Benjamin K. Miller Collection.

'Image (top): Historic Lobby during the Gala
Image (bottom): 'Rarity Revealed' exhibit ribbon cutting

5/8-13/2006: Postmen in the Mountains

As part of the Smithsonian's celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Postal Museum screened "Postmen in the Mountain," the tale of a man handing over his life's work to his son. Set in the remote mountains of Hunan, China, the story is both age-old and contemporary: communication between father and son. Photo courtesy of Shadow Distribution.

Image: Screenshot of the movie Postmen in the Mountains

4/18/06: Greetings from You

Image: In honor of National Card and Letter Writing Month visitors made greeting cards for someone special.

3/25/06: Women in Aviation Family Day

The National Postal Museum participated in the Women in Aviation Family Day at the Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, on March 25, 2006. Over 2,000 program participants, consisting of families and girl scout troops, enjoyed creating stamp collections, learning about women in science on stamps, and writing letters expressing their opinions.

Image: Participants creating stamp collections

3/11/06: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Two visitors display the correspondence kits they created after viewing The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a film based on writer Ann Brashares' popular novel about four 16-year-old friends who spend their first summer apart. The girls stay in touch using the mail and a special pair of Jeans.

Image: Visitors display their new correspondence kits

2/21/06: Networking a Nation: The Star Route Service Gallery Opening

A full-size Freightliner semi truck cab-cutaway, featured in the exhibit "Networking a Nation: The Star Route Service," lets visitors gain a new perspective on transportation from behind the cab's steering wheel. Visitors can enter the truck cab by a set of steps leading to the rear of the cab, sit in the driver or passenger seats, turn the steering wheel, flip levers, push buttons and pretend to use the cab's CB radio handset. The exhibit offers a fascinating look at the many methods of transporting the mail.

Image: A Freightliner cab is a highlight of the new Networking a Nation: The Star Route Service exhibit.

2/18/06: Exploratory Post: Presidents!

In honor of Presidents' day, visitors discovered interesting facts about American presidents and mail. They listened to a story about Lincoln the letter carrier, made a stovepipe hat for storing letters, created a patterned presidential portrait, and wrote letters to President George W. Bush.

Image: Visitors wearing their stovepipe hats

2/14/06: Be My Valentine

Visitors of all ages used an array of beautiful collage materials to make Valentine's Day greeting cards of thanks and appreciation to letter carriers, friends, and loved ones.

Image: Visitor showing her greeting cards

2/8/06: Come Take a Ride on the "Hindenburg"

Curator of Philately Cheryl R. Ganz shares her knowledge regarding mail and memorabilia from the German zeppelin Hindenburg and its 1937 disaster. This presentation was a part of the museum's public program lunchtime lecture series.

Image: Curator of Philately Cheryl R. Ganz

1/14/06: Happy Birthday, Mr. Franklin!

Museum visitors sported handmade bifocals made out of pipe cleaners. This activity was one of several highlighting Ben Franklin's inventions in honor of his 300th birthday.

Image: Visitors sporting pipe cleaner bifocals

1/11/06: Movies about Mail

Museum visitors celebrate Universal Letter Writing Week (January 8-14) by watching movies about mail. Featured movies were Dear Frankie and 84 Charing Cross Road.

Image: The movie Dear Frankie showing at the Museum