became known as the "starved classical" era and reflected the 

 Roosevelt Administration's propensity for simplicity and 

 thrift. Finally, in conjunction with the International Chess 

 Society, the Chess On Stamps exhibition presented a selection of 

 stamps featuring chess themes, pieces, and noted players. 



The National Postal Museum also reached audiences 

 beyond the Museum's galleries in Fiscal Year 1997. Pacific gj 

 in San Francisco provided an ideal opportunity to share 

 selected pieces from the national collections with an inter- 

 national philatelic community. The Museum's contribution 

 to the international philatelic exposition featured many spec- 

 tacular objects including rarities from China, Japan, the 

 Philippines, and Hawaii, die proofs made for the 1915 Panama- 

 Pacific Exposition, and the wrapper used by Harry Winston 

 to ship the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in 

 1958. 



Educational Initiatives and Public Programs 



The National Postal Museum's Education Department created 

 innovative and imaginative curriculum for school groups, devel- 

 oped exciting activities and interesting programs to entice 

 broader audiences into the Museum, and served as an ever- 

 vigilant advocate for the Museum's visitors. 



The Education Department welcomed more school groups 

 into the Museum, conducted more student tours, and distri- 

 buted more educational curriculum for classrooms than ever 

 before. The Museum's docents conducted 213 scheduled stu- 

 dent tours, serving 4,215 students in Fiscal Year 1997. In addi- 

 tion, more than 17,000 students toured the Museum on their 

 own using either the Museum's Self Guide for Very Young 

 Visitors or the Check It Out! brochure for adolescents. The 

 Museum's free curriculum materials continued to be extreme- 

 ly popular. The Museum received 3,346 requests for the Postal 

 Pack for Elementary Students. 1,947 orders for the Postal Pack for 

 Secondary Students, and 1,945 requests for the Pen Friends cur- 

 riculum guide. 



Fiscal Year 1997 also featured the creation of two new 

 education initiatives, including Letters Prom Home, a free cur- 

 riculum guide for advanced English as a Second Language 

 (ESL) students. This curriculum was presented at a local con- 

 ference for ESL teachers and was distributed electronically and 

 by mail. Create a Postage Stamp Activity and Coloring Book, a fun 

 and instructional guide to the development of a stamp, is 

 being sold through the Museum's shop. 



Creative public programs continued to attract diverse 

 audience to the Museum. These events explored the lives of 

 Hispanic families, Chinese Americans, African Americans, 

 and women as gleaned through their correspondence. Each of 

 these well-attended programs filled the Museum's Discovery 

 Center to capacity. The Education Department's film and lec- 

 ture series included Hispanic Families Share the Importance of Let- 

 ters, Triple Feature Movie Marathon. A Portrait of African 

 American Labor in the Postal Service — 191} to the Present, Madame 

 C. J. Walker: Mail Order Entrepreneur, Writing the History of 

 Chinese American: Using Letters to Reclaim Lives, and How En- 



velopes Evolved: A Lecture and Slide Presentation. Workshop and 

 family activities included Bringing Home the Ducks: Sketch and 

 Scratch Workshop, Painting and Valentine Craft Workshop. Stamp- 

 Ability: An All-Day Stamp Fest for Kids, and Boldly Fold: An 

 Envelope Making Workshop. 



The Education Department also served as advocates for the 

 visitors to the Museum. No group was more important to this 

 effort than the 32 volunteer docents, seven "behind-the- 

 scenes" volunteers and four interns. Together, the Education 

 Department staff and its volunteer docents served as liaisons 

 to the visitors, meeting and talking with them to ensure that 

 new exhibit content is understandable to all and their 

 Museum visit enjoyable. The Museum's docents guided 493 

 tours serving 4,132 visitors. 



Collection Management 



The care and preservation ot the 13 million objects of the Na- 

 tional Postal Museum collection required the Collection 

 Management Department to perform myriad functions. These 

 responsibilities encompassed collection management (catalog- 

 ing, accountability, storage), registration (acquisitions and 

 loans), designing and maintaining catalogue standards for the 

 Museum's preservation and information systems, and perform- 

 ing object research and management for all exhibitions. The 

 Collections Management Department's primary goals for Fiscal 

 Year 1997 and continuing into Fiscal Year 1998 include greater 

 accountability, greater utilization and visibility, refinement, and 

 better long-term care of the Museum's vast collections. 



The National Postal Museum's collecting policy was 

 revised in January 1997 at the request of the Director. This 

 modified policy instructs the Museum to collect objects in 

 two principal areas — philatelic and postal history material 

 from the United States and truly rare, unique, or historically 

 significant international philatelic material. The Museum 

 receives routine government transfers of U.S. philatelic 

 material from the U.S. Postal Service, the Bureau of Engrav- 

 ing and Printing, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 



The Collection Management Department, assisted by a 

 talented and devoted volunteer staff, made significant 

 progress in cataloging the accession backlog and inventorying 

 special collections. The existing backlog was reduced from 

 247 to 127 transactions totaling more than 150,000 objects. 

 The Collection Management Department created a feasible 

 schedule for the elimination of the backlog within seven years. 



The Collection Management Department also continued to 

 refine the collection inventory in specific areas: 7,880 more 

 U.S. plate proofs were inventoried, bringing the total to date 

 to 14,370; more than 5,000 U.S. revenue stamps were inven- 

 toried in 23 stock books; and the inventory of several special- 

 ized collections, including Chinese die proofs, U.S. revenue 

 die proofs, and postal history documents was completed. 



In conjunction with the Museum's curatorial staff, mem- 

 bers of the Collection Management Department staff began a 

 major reorganization of the entire collection to reflect a more 

 logical order and to simplify access to individual objects. The 



CM 



