I might have an obsession with mail. I love sending post cards to the point where I have an annual budget for items just for this hobby. I constantly try to find new ways to improve my hobby. Last year, I started stamping the post cards with the National Park cancel stamps. This year, I experimented and came up with a way to make my own post cards using photos. Now the postcards are personalized, can be obtained from all our stops, and less expensive. This means I can send more postcards on the same budget. I am up to sending 9 to 10 postcards per stop… Needless to say, I go through a lot of stamps.

When I found out the Smithsonian had a US Postal Service Museum just outside the mall, the museum was immediately put on my must stop list.

The postal museum was the 2nd to last stop on our National Mall excursion, so we were both tired and pressed for time. The time limit came from parking in a valet area and the valet asking what time we were going to be back. At the time, we said 2 pm, and it was already almost 2 pm. We decided to do a quick tour. We stopped at the main points, like the functioning USPS store in the building which had unique cancel stamps.

The exterior of the building looked liked all the other museum building in DC, so I did not take a lot of exterior pictures.

It’s a totally different story once inside. The inside was very ornate. The first floor held the Smithsonian information desk and store. The lower level held the museum and post office.

John spent more time on the first floor because I was too excited about going to the post office to collect cancel stamps and mail the Manassas National Battlefield Park postcards. The information board photos below were taken by John.

I missed going to the National Stamp Salon. This will be a must on our next trip to DC.

We took the escalator downstairs and went to the post office first. Everyone who received the Manassas National Battlefield Park postcard has the postage cancellation stamp that was from USPS Museum Post office

While at the post office, I saw all the new release 2026 forever stamps. The post office had the new stamps in stock. Needless to say, I went on a buying spree. REMINDER – stamp prices go up on July 12th. Letter Forever stamp will go from 78 to 82 cents. Postcard stamps will increase from 61 to 65 cent. I highly recommend buying your stamps now.

The next stop was the quick review of the museum room across from the post office. This area focused on Postal Process through the years.

The next area was a large lobby atrium displaying the modes of transportation over the years. They even had a semi where you could pretend to be a driver. Unfortunately, a kid was having fun, and I didn’t feel like pushing them out to get in :-).

“Did you know?” wheels were placed throughout the museum.

Father of the postal Service

This was a really long blog with lots of information boards. The amazing part was that this wasn’t everything. There were rooms that we did not go into, plus additional content that we did not add. I will be creating a separate blog on the mail fraud section.