The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-04
THE NATIONAL
! POSTAL MUSEUM
One of the Most Interesting Elk
hibits at Capital d
THE STAMP COLLECTION
Is Worth a Small Fortune-zModeI of
First Steamship to Carry Ocean
MaiI-The Remains of
"Owney," Too
From the Washington Star.

From the Washington Star.
No museum or special exhibit at the
nations capital perhaps, has recently
gained more popularity than the mu-
scum of the postoffice department.
From few curious odds and ends, as
sepibled in a small room, the collection
has grown, until today it is classed as
ore of the largest and most interesting of
all the numerous exhibits for sightseers
In Washington. The entire corridor of
the third floor of the big granite post
office building is now necessary to dis
play articles gathered in the postal serv-
ice, which are to be found in no other
museum in the country The number of
visitors to this museum has increased by
thousands. A conservative estimate, after
@ tally continued for several days, places
the number of visitors annually at $4,000
to 100000.
Since the revival of the interest in post
age stamp collecting, many people have
been known to make special trips to
Washington just to get glimpse of the
exhibit i'll this museum. The display con-
sists of a complete collection of postage
stamps postal cards and Stamped enve-
opes issued by the United States govern
ment. and of all stamp-issuing countries
of the world.
The actual value of this collection is
stamps were put on sale in the open
market the price they would command
would probably be many times that
amount, because the premium on the ma
5ority of them has increased to an enor-
nous figure since they were issued.
One section of the exhibit is devoted to
the equipment used in hadling the mails
and in mail TRANSPORTATION from the dog
sledge and the pony express to the new
est type of the all-steel car now in use.
Along with this elaborate exhibit is the
unusual collection of articles from the
dead letter office. Recently mutoscope
picture machines were added to the ex-
hibit. Those machines depict by moving
pictures the various operations of the
postal service, from the time a letter
is mailed to the time of its finad delivery.
Among the miscellaneous collections are
many other things, such as the original
| models of the Inflated battleship Maine,
the Monitor the Merrimac, the first sub
marine torpedo boat and the first mail
carrying ocean steamers.
This exhibit Is now much more than a
collection of odds and ends 1t is an in
| structive exhibit showing how letters
are carried in this and other countries.
| Its collection of curios is confined to
those that have come in through the di-
vision of dead letters. Many of the ar
ticles in the museum have been shown
at the great expostions held in recent
years. 1t may be said that when large
exposition is contemplated this is one
OF the first of the government exhibits
| the managers want to draw upon. At
all expositions where the postoffice de-
partment has displayed this exhibit 1t
has been considered to be one of the
leading features.
Historic Articles
Many of the articles included in the
exhibit are valuable from a historic
standpoint. For instance, there is the
old stage coach which carried mail in
Montana In 1877 it was captured by
Ind Ans only to be retaken after a fierce
fight by General Howard. The same year
General Sherman used the coach while
on his tour of inspection between Fort
uElls and Helena, covering distance of
los miles. General Garfield also made
use of the old conveyance before he be-
came President as did his successor,
president Arthur
A model of the first steam vessel
10 carry the United States mails across
he Atlantic is to be seen here. The
hame of the vessel was the Southerner
Before it made its initial voyage but
bne steamer had made the trip across
! he Atlantic, the Savannah, and that
vessel only used her paddles part of
he way, as they were contrived SO they
bould be taken adeck when desired
In the dead letter collection is gen.
zine "infernal machine" 1t was directed
10 Captain Eulate of the Spanish man
pf-war Vizcaya at the time that vessel
vas lying outside of New York, just be-
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