Postmarks

I've recently begun saving postmarks from letters and giving them their own page in my stamp album. There's a certain thrill for us postal geeks when we find a perfectly preserved postal marking. This is especially useful when you come across old letters and you're trying to determine if the date reads '1918' or '1928'.

 These photos are from an assortment I've collected in the last few years. I decided to keep them together in the in the SuperSafe stamp album I purchased last year at the National Postal Museum store. I had not really considered myself a stamp collector, but now that I have an album with a few stamps in it, I guess I have to rethink that.

In addition to collecting nicely defined postmarks, I also collect a few different themes of stamps that appeal to me- holiday, authors/writing, cartoons, US states and a handful of cute or colorful stamps that just appeal to me.

I prefer the round postmarks as pictured above and below. They are more evocative of the postal imagery than the machine stamped postmarks that are more common these days. I save all of the letters I receive and every few years I'll go through the envelopes and cut out the stamps and postmarks that I want to save.

The 'Forman' postmark above is from my hometown of Forman, ND. I'm not sure where this stamp came from or what year the postmark is from.

Stamps and postmarks. Just part of the fun and ephemera of mail from today and yesterday.

A Visit to the National Postal Museum (Part 3)

Before visiting the National Postal Museum (NPM) I had been reading about it through different blogs- the NPM blog, the PostMuse blog, and James at Everyday Correspondence and his wonderful three part coverage of the museum (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) earlier this year. There were a few others as well, but I neglected to bookmark them, so if you wrote a blog post on the NPM, please comment and let me know.  It is great to see that others are as fascinated as I am with postal history.

In trying to learn more and better prepare for our visit, I began following the NPM on facebook and twitter. I also follow the news posted on the British Postal Museum and Archive.

After writing my first two blogs (Part 1 and Part 2), Abraham at La Vie Graphite mentioned a post he had written earlier this year about the history of letter forms at the Musée de la Poste (the postal history museum) in Paris. This one was fascinating to me because the museum concentrated more on handwritten letters.

In my research and travels I am finding that it's not just people who like stamps or people who like mail who are fascinated with Post Offices and the history of mail service, but there are many kinds of people- all with varying degrees of interest and preferred topics.

For example, my husband (who was such a good sport to accompany me on my 2 hour tour) has zero to minimal interest in anything postal, but was drawn to the Armed Services display (In hindsight, it could have been that this display came with a set of chairs). Or the friendly NPM store clerk who shared with me that she had not been particularly interested in anything postal and hadn't realized the NPM existed until she started working there a few years ago. Now she buys newly minted sheets of stamps and saves them in a stamp album. And that's how it begins.

A Visit to the National Postal Museum (Part 2)

One of my favorite stops in the National Postal Museum was a display celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the museum. It was called the Alphabetilately A to Z.  The room was set up with 26 different stops and each letter had its own theme and artwork. I spent so much time zooming in trying to capture the quality of the photos of some of the letters, that I neglected to capture some shots of the room itself. Lesson learned (I hope).

In a corner of the room when you first walk in is a standing display case of a free set of postcards that match the theme of the room with the A to Z motif. The perforated card set has 8 cards attached and each card offers a collage of postal related items.It almost inspires me to create my own postage themed collage. I scanned them and added the photos to Flickr if you want to see them.

Thinking that one or two of you may want your own set of these cool cards, I grabbed a couple extras. Leave a comment if you would like one and I will draw two names to send them to. I will send anywhere so this is not limited to US residents.

The photos in the blog are different than the postcard images. If you want to see the postcards click here to visit my Flickr account where they are located.

9/16/2010 UPDATE with the names of the contest winners- Pamela G left a comment on Facebook and Vixen left a comment on the website blog. I will contact these two people and get their mailing information. If I can't reach them then I will draw again and post another update. There were a total of 9 comments in the 3 locations and I numbered each person and drew two numbers to get the winners. Thank you!

A Visit to the National Postal Museum (Part 1)

We were in DC over the Labor Day weekend so we spent a few hours at the National Postal Museum. I was pleased to find out it is open 364 days a year (Christmas Day is the only day it's closed) so we didn't have to adjust our schedule at all. Rather than give a play by play of our visit, I will highlight in a few blog postings some of my favorite or most memorable parts of the visit.

I was carried away on a wave of nostalgia when I saw the wall of these old post office boxes. I grew up in a small town in North Dakota and remember getting the mail inside the local post office which was located on main street next to a cafe and two doors down from the movie theater.

We were PO Box 133 for many years- probably until my parents passed away. I remember the metal dial as shown below as well as the little window that offered just a glimpse to show you if your box held mail or not.

If you received a package that was too big for the mailbox, then you got a slip (just like today) telling you to go to the teller window to pick up your package.

I recall the first piece of mail I received. My godparents from Montana had sent me a small package for my birthday.  I was turning 5 or 6 years old and, boy, was I ecstatic to realize I could get a surprise like that out of the blue with no ceremony or fanfare- just a package wrapped in plain brown paper addressed to me. What was this wondrous thing called 'mail' and how could I get some more? And so it began.

Planning a Visit to the National Postal Museum

We are planning a trip to DC in September and we have it on our itinerary to visit the National Postal Museum. I've been reading some interesting blog posts about it and am very excited to spend a good half day there- meeting other interested folks, seeing the history of the postal service, getting story ideas, taking pictures. 

 

James at Everyday Correspondence has a great 3-part blog post on the National Postal Museum.

Pushing the Envelope is the blog of the National Postal Museum.

British Postal Museum has a blog 

The Traveling Wheelchair's post on the museum.

All My Hues has a July 2010 post with pictures

Have any of you been there? Do you have recommendations of what to see and do there?