The Postal Museum

I had no intention of visiting the Postal Museum at Washington DC. It sounded boring, and I was never interested in stamp collection. It's likely to appeal to only those who collect stamps, and I don't have enough background understanding of stamp collection to be able to appreciate those little pieces of paper. However, I found myself dropping into the Postal Museum one day, simply to get away from the 38 degree heat. I was at the Union Station to purchase my train ticket to New York, and also to take a look at the architectural features of the train station. Bored with just the shops, I left the station to see if there're any interesting sights around, and the only one I could find around the corner is the Postal Museum. Oh well, it's free (one of the Smithsonian institutions) and it's cooler than outside.

What I thought was a 20-minute respite from the heat turned out to be a 2-hour fascination with new discoveries. Stamps could tell so much. Other than the usual display of precious stamps (interesting that they have higher value if they are mistakes in printing, or they have not been used before), the museum has cleverly used stamps and the postal service as an underlying theme to talk and make commentaries about wars (poignant letters from soldiers in the field), innovation and invention (mass production of envelopes), frauds (email bank transfers) etc. I also learned that the pony express (as romanticised in the cowboy movies) lasted only 2 years; it was quickly replaced by the invention of the telegraph.

In the end, I realise that it's all about telling stories, the perennial links that tie human beings to one another. The form may be different, the environment on opposite sides of the world, the era several generations away, but the fundamental humanity in us is all about love, family and friendship.