Susan Smith

Working at the National Postal Museum enables me to combine four great loves: history, museums, cultural heritage, and research. I completed my PhD in History and my MA in International Studies, and received a Museum Studies Certificate. I have taught at universities on both coasts and in the Midwest, as well as in Egypt, and have published in the fields of European history, museum studies and cultural heritage. My first project at the National Postal Museum was working on the exhibition, My Fellow Soldiers: Letters from World War I. In my current position as the Winton M. Blount Research Chair, I focus on fostering collaborative research efforts and disseminating their results in the museum’s thematic fields of philately, postal operations, and the history of mail, and in its staff’s professional specialties, including collection management, conservation, curation, exhibitions, education, and community development.

Interests: Everything Russian, museums, photography, traveling and collecting decorative boxes and prints from around the world.

Favorite museum object: The interior of the Railway Mail Service car

What I like best about working at the National Postal Museum: Working with my colleagues to develop and carry out research projects.