Postal Employees After Hours

By Historian and Curator Nancy Pope

Like many Americans, postal workers have found ways to bond outside the office. Postal workers have had a long history of involvement in group activities outside of work hours, through sports teams, musical groups, charity work, and even in retirement. The National Postal Museum has launched a project to begin compiling an account of what postal-related organizations, past and present, do after normal business hours. A special microsite, Postal Employees After Hours, reflects some of these very special accomplishments and activities. It chronicles many of the postal-related organizations that were discovered during research completed in 2010.

Employees cited many reasons for participation, such as facilitating union solidarity, exploring common interests, and reaching out to the greater community. However, the reasons most often cited were the pure enjoyment of other postal employees' company and the fun of engaging in these various activities as a group.

The museum is encouraging current and former postal employees to enjoy the new Postal Employees After Hours microsite and help to expand the "community" even further. Contact museum curators with information concerning additional organizations at npm_curatorial@si.edu. The museum is especially interested in historical groups and activities.

Visit the new microsite: Postal Employees After Hours

About the Author
The late Nancy A. Pope, a Smithsonian Institution curator and founding historian of the National Postal Museum, worked with the items in this collection since joining the Smithsonian Institution in 1984. In 1993 she curated the opening exhibitions for the National Postal Museum. Since then, she curated several additional exhibitions. Nancy led the project team that built the National Postal Museum's first website in 2002. She also created the museum's earliest social media presence in 2007.