“Marvelous Ways to Move Mail” Summer Family Festival at National Postal Museum

Long before they began cruising the information superhighway, Americans seeking fast, secure ways to communicate cleared treacherous paths through forests and across the wilderness. The National Postal Museum invites the public to explore how mail delivery has evolved from Colonial horseback riders to modern trucks to the future “missile mail” during the Summer Family Festival, “Marvelous Ways to Move Mail” on Thursday, July 27.

The museum will offer a variety of hands-on activities for all age groups at the festival, including the life-size board game “Mail Delivery Challenge.” Participants will be challenged to move the mail as quickly as they can along their route, communicate with train whistles, interpret a post mark, create a transportation-inspired stamp collection and build a puzzle of a mail truck.

Ever wonder how fast it would take to deliver a letter by missile? It takes just 22 minutes to to send 3,000 pieces of mail 100 miles. Visitors are also invited to build a cardboard missile and find out more about the experimental mail service at the “Missile Mail and Pneumatic Tubes” activity.

All activities are available from noon to 4 p.m. “Marvelous Ways to Move Mail,” is free and open to the public; no registration is required.

The National Postal Museum is devoted to presenting the colorful and engaging history of the nation’s mail service and showcasing the largest and most comprehensive collection of stamps and philatelic material in the world. It is located at 2 Massachusetts Ave. N.E., in the Old City Post Office Building across from Union Station. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information visit the museum’s Web site at postalmuseum.si.edu.

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