Minister of Australia, John Howard, and the Australian Am- 

 bassador to the United States, toured the gallery. Sylvia Jukes 

 Morris gave a lecture on her new biography of Clare Boothe 

 Luce. Pulitzer Prize— winning author Saul Bellow was honored 

 on the occasion of the gallery's acquisition of the portrait of 

 him by Sarah Yuster and the author's 82nd birthday. 



National Postal Museum 



Jim Brum. Director 



The National Postal Museum, through its collection and 

 library, is dedicated to the preservation, study, and presenta- 

 tion of postal history and philately. The Museum uses research, 

 exhibits, education and public programs to make this rich 

 history available to a wide and diverse audience. 



A Good Year by Any Measure 



Fiscal Year 1997 proved to be an exceptionally challenging 

 and satisfying year for the National Postal Museum. In the ef- 

 fort to fulfill the Smithsonian Institution's mission to increase 

 and diffuse knowledge, rhe staff of the National Postal 

 Museum established ambitious goals and then pursued them 

 with vigor and purpose. Time and again, the Museum's in- 

 dividual departments fused their energy together to produce 

 exemplary exhibitions, public programs, educational initia- 

 tives, and scholarly works of superior quality. These new 

 exhibitions and programs resulted in a 24.6% increase in 

 attendance over Fiscal Year 1996. The 450,288 visitors to the 

 National Postal Museum in Fiscal Year 1997 marked its 

 highest attendance total ever. 



Certainly among the highlights for the year was achieving 

 full sratus as a Smithsonian Institution national Museum. On 

 October I, 1997, the Director of the National Postal Museum 

 began reporting directly to the Smithsonian's Provost. The 

 National Postal Museum also assumed its place within the in- 

 ternational postal museum community as it joined the Inter- 

 national Association of Transport and Communications 

 Museums. Other members of this organization include the 

 National Postal Museum of Canada, as well as the postal 

 museums of Finland, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, 

 Hungary, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, The 

 Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom. 

 The National Postal Museum also created an international 

 Council of Philatelists to advise the Museum on philatelic ex- 

 hibits, publications, acquisitions, and public programs. 



Exhibitions 



Exhibitions at the National Postal Museum highlight 

 America's rich postal history. The exhibit, curatorial, and col- 

 lections management departments worked together, combin- 



ing scholarly research with the Museum's collections, historic 

 photographs, and interactive devices to present a wide range 

 of stories for the visitor to explore. In Fiscal Year 1997 the 

 National Postal Museum celebrated the opening of several 

 new exhibitions in its galleries. The Museum also increased 

 its efforts to reach audiences outside Washington, D.C., creat- 

 ing traveling exhibit panels and transporting objects to 

 venues around the country. 



The National Postal Museum's first fully interactive ex- 

 hibit — What's in the Mail for You! — opened to the public in 

 November 1996. This 1,200-square-foot exhibition explores 

 business mail and the principles of direct marketing using 

 innovative educational technology. Visitors learn about the 

 history and impact of the direct mail industry in American 

 life through computer-based interactives and innovative 

 special effects. 



The Museum's Rarities Vault showcased a spectacular array 

 of important and unique philatelic objects from the national 

 collections, other museums, and private collectors. Through 

 the generous loan of Edward Siskin, Letters of a New Republic 

 featured covers and letters recording rhe transfer of power in 

 America from the British Parliamentary Post of colonial times 

 to an independent U.S. post following the American Revolu- 

 tion. The First Federal Postage Stamp, a sesquicentennial celebra- 

 tion of the first official U.S. postage stamp, followed this 

 exhibit and presented original issues, covers, and dies of the 

 1847 f> rst federal stamp. 



New exhibits in The Art of Cards and Letters gallery spot- 

 lighted the importance of personal correspondence and letters 

 between family and friends and showcased creative envelope 

 designs. Ties That Bind: The Immigrant Experience dramatized 

 letters from recent American immigrants. These poignant 

 letters demonstrated how written correspondence — in an age 

 filled with communication choices — is still used to share emo- 

 tional stories and evocative images. In May 1997 the gallery 

 honored the winners of the Museum's third annual envelope- 

 calligraphy contest, The Graceful Envelope. This year's theme, 

 Pushing the Envelope, provided contestants with marvelous op- 

 portunities to stretch their imaginations. Creative educational 

 and public programs contributed to the success of these 

 exhibitions. 



In conjunction with the release of his latest book, The His- 

 tory of Envelopes, guest curator Maynard Benjamin examined 

 the creation and growth of America's envelope manufacturing 

 industry in Under Cover: The Evolution of the Envelope. This 

 exhibition combined the National Postal Museum's collection 

 of rare envelope-making patent models with historic images 

 to celebrate the inventions of the 19th century that transformed 

 society and daily life. 



Three additional exhibitions rounded out the year. Stamps of 

 Colombia and the States featured selected pages of the John N. 

 Taylor Collection reflecting the history of Colombia from 1859 

 to 1907. New Deal Architecture examined post offices constructed 

 during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's massive federal 

 building boom. This unique period of federal architecture 



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