Starting the System documents America's increasing need for a mail system to ensure the free flow of information between citizens and their government.
Visitors pass through a setting that represents the nation's first post road.
Lone postal riders carried mail along such desolate roads between Boston and New York beginning in 1673. The mail they carried was by and large for official business, not personal correspondence. The British government needed a reliable mail service throughout its American colonies for official communications. Starting the System features changing manuscripts and artifacts from the earliest years of America's postal system. Materials in this exhibit highlight the creation and growth of the postal service, which was critical to the development of a national identity.