BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere

DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] SIPM_150525_010.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] SIPM_150525_020.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[3] SIPM_150525_024.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[4] SIPM_150525_027.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[5] SIPM_150525_042.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[6] SIPM_150525_052.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[7] SIPM_150525_057.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[8] SIPM_150525_061.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[9] SIPM_150525_074.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[10] SIPM_150525_081.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[11] SIPM_150525_098.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[12] SIPM_150525_110.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[13] SIPM_150525_117.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[14] SIPM_150525_123.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[15] SIPM_150525_125.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[16] SIPM_150525_128.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[17] SIPM_150525_140.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[18] SIPM_151210_01.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[19] SIPM_151210_04.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[20] SIPM_151210_11.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[21] SIPM_151210_18.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[22] SIPM_151210_23.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIPM_150525_020.JPG: An Architectural Masterpiece: The architectural firm of D.H. Burnham & Co. designed this building in classic Beaux Arts style. The building complements its next-door neighbor, Union Station -- also designed by Burnham & Co. Daniel Burnham, the company's founder, developed the National Mall and many other prominent Washington sites. You are standing in the ornate historic lobby, which formerly served as the main service area of the Washington City Post Office. The USPS renovated the lobby in 1989, restoring every foot of the space to its original grandeur.
2. SIPM_150525_024.JPG: The Post Office Changing With the Times: As demands on city post offices changed, so did this building. 1911: Construction of the post office next to the new city train station begins. 1914: On September 14, the Washington City Post Office opens for business. 1935: The building is expanded with the help of Federal funds intended to boost the nation's depressed economy. 1957-59: The post office is modernized to improve mail handling, communications, and customer service. 1971: A second burst of modernization, including Formica counters and a dropped ceiling, increases usability for visitors but covers much of the original architecture. 1986: To accommodate larger postal volumes, a mail processing plant is built two miles north. A scaled-down post office reopens downstairs. 1989: Renovation begins to make way for federal offices and the National Postal Museum.
3. SIPM_150525_027.JPG: From Post Office to Postal Museum For 72 years this historic building was the main post office of the District of Columbia. Since 1993 this building has housed the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. Before that, it was the Washington City Post Office, built next to Union Station to speed the movement of incoming and outgoing mail. Picture the lobby filled with people buying stamps, checking mailboxes, and socializing -- in a time when mail was the primary means of communication. Level 1 once bustled with Washington, D.C. postal workers sorting mail for local delivery.
4. SIPM_150525_042.JPG: America's History Is In The Mail! What does that mean? Come in and find out as you explore the museum's two levels.
5. SIPM_150525_057.JPG: Story of the Postal Museum: With about 6 million objects, the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum is the world's largest museum collection of stamps and postal artifacts. For years, the United States had one of the world's largest postal systems -- but no postal museum. The Smithsonian had a large philatelic collection that had grown over the course of more than 130 years. It had been housed and displayed in several museum buildings. Interested organizations and individuals fulfilled a dream of making this world-class collection easily accessible to the public. In 1993, the National Postal Museum opened in this building.
6. SIPM_150525_061.JPG: The Museum Expanding Collections & Experiences: As the Smithsonian's collection of stamps and postal objects grew, so too did the desire for a way to display them. 1882 -- A North Dakota postmaster donates a picture of his log cabin post office to the Smithsonian. 1886 -- The Smithsonian receives a gift of 10-cent Confederate postage stamps -- the first philatelic piece accepted into its collection. 1908 -- The expanding collection is housed in the US National Museum (not the Smithsonian's Art and Industries Building). 1912 -- The Post Office Department closes its museum and donates its collection to the Smithsonian. 1964 -- The collection moves to the National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History). 1991 -- November 6: Smithsonian Secretary Robert McCormick Adams and Postmaster General Anthony Frank sign an agreement creating the National Postal Museum. 1993 -- July 30: The museum opens. 2013 -- The Historic Lobby and William H. Gross Stamp Gallery open, along with new exhibits downstairs -- providing a wide range of visitor experiences.
7. SIPM_150525_110.JPG: "The mail and the press... are the nerves of the body politic. By them the slightest impression made on the most remote parts is communicated to the whole system." -- John C. Calhoun
8. SIPM_150525_117.JPG: "The post office is the visible form of the federal government to every community and to every citizen. Its hand is the only one that touches the local life, the social interests, and business concern of every neighborhood..." -- Postmaster General John Wanamaker
9. SIPM_150525_123.JPG: "Carrier of love and sympathy messenger of friendship consoler of the lonely bond of the scattered family enlarger of the common life." -- Dr. Charles W. Eliot
10. SIPM_150525_125.JPG: "Carrier of news and knowledge, instrument of trade and commerce, promoter of mutual acquaintance among men and nations and hence of peace and goodwill." -- Dr. Charles W. Eliot
11. SIPM_150525_128.JPG: "The postal service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the nation together through the personal, educational, literary and business correspondence of the people." -- Postal Reorganization Act, 1971
12. SIPM_151210_23.JPG: Spongebob Squarepants mail box
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Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2023_07_15A1_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (10 photos from 07/15/2023)
- 2022_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (3 photos from 2022)
- 2021_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (39 photos from 2021)
- 2020_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (2 photos from 2020)
- 2018_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (1 photo from 2018)
- 2016_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (1 photo from 2016)
- 2014_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (6 photos from 2014)
- 2013_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (33 photos from 2013)
- 2011_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (6 photos from 2011)
- 2007_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (9 photos from 2007)
- 2005_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (4 photos from 2005)
- 2002_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (12 photos from 2002)
- 1999_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (3 photos from 1999)
- 1998_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (9 photos from 1998)
- 1997_DC_SIPM: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Not Covered Elsewhere (2 photos from 1997)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) Postal Museum] [Display ALL (Smithsonian) Postal Museum photos] [Museums (History)] [Museums (Other)]
2015 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. I retired from the US Census Bureau in god-forsaken Suitland, Maryland on my 58th birthday in May. Yee ha! Trips this year: a quick trip to Florida. two Civil War Trust conferences (Raleigh, NC and Richmond, VA), and my 10th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Los Angeles). Ego Strokes: Carolyn Cerbin used a Kevin Costner photo in her USA Today article. Miss DC pictures were used a few times in the Washington Post. Number of photos taken this year: just over 550,000.
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Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].