The objects highlighted in this collection represent dynamic changes in the history of the U.S. postal system. They represent ideas and legislation that laid the groundwork for the development of the system to services, materials, and methods that changed the way mail has been handled, processed, and delivered.
What objects will continue this story in the future? As the majority of mail processing returned to postal facilities, the mix of mechanical and automated machines will continue this story into the future. Behind machines are the software systems and their upgrades that will be sources of information for postal historians to come. The National Postal Museum remains committed to continue the collection of postal artifacts that represent changes and developments in mail processing and the postal network.
In 1989 the United States issued this fanciful block of four stamps in conjunction with the 20th Universal Postal Congress. The illustrations demonstrated both known and imagined transportation methods as mail movers of the future. What the postal system of the future will bring is an unknown that awaits us in the years to come.
