Biplanes, Trains, and Super Fast Ponies, Zip Codes, Stamps, and Ben Franklin

I’d never been to the National Postal Museum, a Smithsonian museum in a stately granite, Beaux-Arts building constructed in 1914. The U.S. Postal Service renovated what was once Washington’s main post office in the late 1980s for this informative, enjoyable museum exploring the social, technical, and economic history of mail in America. It’s been open since 1993. Big chunks of it need an overhaul, but it’s fascinating and, across the street from Union Station, blessedly easy to find.

Escalators deliver visitors downstairs to history-oriented galleries on the start of America’s mail system from colonial times to today. War and peace, land, sea, air, and the moon, city and country, snow, rain, heat, and gloom of night, zip codes, anthrax, robots, and the Inverted Jenny stamp all figure in a story that’s truly like no other.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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I’d never been to the National Postal Museum, a Smithsonian museum in a stately granite, Beaux-Arts building constructed in 1914. The U.S. Postal Service renovated what was once Washington’s main post office in the late 1980s for this informative, enjoyable museum exploring the social, technical, and economic history of mail in America. It’s been open since 1993. Big chunks of it need an overhaul, but it’s fascinating and, across the street from Union Station, blessedly easy to find.

Escalators deliver visitors downstairs to history-oriented galleries on the start of America’s mail system from colonial times to today. War and peace, land, sea, air, and the moon, city and country, snow, rain, heat, and gloom of night, zip codes, anthrax, robots, and the Inverted Jenny stamp all figure in a story that’s truly like no other.