National Postal Museum, Washington DC

I was in DC for a conference earlier this week, so I dropped in on the National Postal Museum (https://postalmuseum.si.edu/). Suffice it to say, I had the whole place virtually to myself; there were more guards than patrons. Interesting that visitors to this (or any Smithsonian Institute facility) have to go through a scan very much like those administered by the TSA at airports.

It's a grand old building in its own right, certain to please architecture geeks. Its lobby is resplendent with marble, while exhibit rooms have refinished oak floor. The lobby still hosts (unused) post office boxes. One exhibit room features a table with three open boxes of off-paper stamps. Visitors are invited to sit, pick through, and walk away with no more than six stamps from the collection. To facilitate this, the museum provides envelopes from Mystic Stamp company. Enscription on the envelope invites the bearer to visit Mystic's website and sign up for a free bag of 200 U.S. stamps. Clever, eh?

There's a small working post office in the basement, as well as a gift shop that sells a lot of chachkis, t-shirts and the like. I noted accumulations of 500 U.S. stamps on paper sold in opaque plastic bags. Then there are several display envelopes, each with about a dozen stamps selected for a specific theme: Lincoln, U.S. flags, Famous African Americans, etc. These are WAY overpriced from a philatelic perspective. I bought nothing, but admission to the whole enterprise was free.

What was the museum content like? My visit to Washington sadly clashed with the Federal shutdown so never got to go and unlikely will ever get the chance to visit again.

Deltic, the best answer is to check out the website: https://postalmuseum.si.edu/

The security is to make sure no one steals stamps. There are multi-millions of dollars worth of stamps.

It is a great place to visit. The penny black and inverted jenny stamps were on display when I went through. I probably will not get to see them anywhere else.

The higher security screening at the National Postal Museum is due to sharing the building entrance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and not the Museum itself. I specifically talked to the screeners about this last summer when requested to remove my shoes as part of the screening there.

The BoLS requires more security than the NPM?

Yes. Direct information from the screeners.
Entry into other free-standing Smithsonian museums (National Portrait Gallery, for example), on the same day were simple and easy.

My daughter graduates college this year and, for a graduation present, has asked for a family vacation to Washington DC. (Can you believe a young person in this day and age would ask for such a thing for a graduation present? I'm so proud of her!) Getting back to the topic, our tentative plans are to go sometime in June and I definitely plan on attending the Postal Museum. My wife won't want to go but my daughter will. Although she is not a collector, she has always been interested in my stamps and used to help me sort stamps when she was still at home.

Pretty amazing place. When I visited a year or so ago the 1 cent British Guiana Magenta was still on display. Not sure if it is still there, but other highlights, including the remnants of the Benjamin Miller collection are on display*, including the US 1 cent z grill (Scott 85A), at the time of Miller's collection, it was the only known copy, now there are two. In addition there are thousands of prime stamps from all over the world.

*The Miller collection, one of the finest US collections of all time, was on display at the New York Public Library when it was stolen. Luckily only half was on display at any one time. Many of the stamps were later recovered by the FBI, but not before a number of the important multiples were broken down. After the theft the collection was kept in storage and ultimately donated to the Smithsonian, where it is now on display.

The One-Cent Magenta British Guiana is still on display.

I'm glad to hear that the One-Cent Magenta is still on display. About a week ago I finished reading The One-Cent Magenta: Inside the Quest to Own the Most Valuable Stamp in the World by James Barron and would love to have an opportunity to actually see it. The way that my luck runs, though, they will probably take it off display the week before I visit in June!

Don't want you to be disappointed - the stamp has faded badly over the years. Not much to look at anymore. And doesn't look anything like the pictures you've seen...

One of the best things about the Postal Museum is that if you email them in advance, you can set up a private showing of material not on public display. You tell them what you want to see and they will bring it to you. I saw the Eagle Collection that way, a great revenue collection.