For past several years was eager to visit Washington, DC to see the National Postal Museum. Today we visited the museum next to Union Station and the best thing I can say about the Postal Museum is that it is a short walk to the Metro at Union Station when you're ready to leave. The Good: --Wonderful display of a RPO (that's a railroad car used to sort and distribute mail) --Neat to see the miniatures required for 19th century patent applications. --It's free The Bad: --Many computer displays are "out of order" or they simply turned off the lights. --There were four terminals to send free postcards; two were "out of order," and the one we used could not process our 5-digit zip code (after correctly showing state and city) and simply locked up. The Ugly: --Many of the displays are, naturally, about letter-writing, but a significant number of the letters are now illegible. If letters comprise a majority of the display materials and a visitor cannot read the contents, then why isn't anyone from the Smithsonian fixing / replacing these non-operative items? --Some of the wall murals have had mustaches and beards added by ink pens; On one of the displays about letter writing from the "old west" several of the photographic people cutouts had eyes gouged out. --and then there is the final exhibit before you pass by the museum store. It looks like fun and a great educational learning process. Wow, could it be about how the mail is processed and delivered, or some sort of quiz concerning historical development of our postal service. Nope. It's a blatant public relations ploy to demonstrate how kind and wonderful all of those direct marketing folks are who want to gladden our mailboxes with their advertising stuff. And, if you answer four questions correctly (including how one removes their name from junk mailing lists.... wonder how that one got in there?) then you receive 10% discount in the museum store. I have been visiting Smithsonian museums for almost 50 years and have always been impressed on every visit, until today. Would someone please refurbish this place (and BTW all of the escalators were also out of service) so that we can once again take pride in a great public service institution. The many fine men and women of the USPS, not to mention Washington, DC visitors, are certainly owed something better than this.

I expected to The National Postal Museum to be a place about stamps, which I'm not particularly interested in. It was actually very interesting. I had no idea how closely the postal system was tied to the history and development of the US, particularly the westward expansion and the growth of different transportation systems (it was crucial in starting commercial aviation). Route 1, which run north-south along the east coast, was originally a Native American trail that became a mail route early in the history of the colonies.