4DMV Kids’ Guide to the National Postal Museum
One of the most underrated Smithsonian Museums! There’s so much to explore at The National Postal Museum from creating your own digital stamp to sorting historic pieces of mail. Learn how the famous Hope Diamond traveled across sea in an envelope and for how much, too.
This guide is both fact-based and opinionated based on our experiences in visiting The National Postal Museum, located outside of the National Mall in Northeast, DC.
Follow the links to explore more information about the various exhibits and things to see while visiting. No affiliate links are included in this blog.
Check back frequently for updates. The more we visit; the more tips we’ll be able to share. Happy planning!
In This Guide
Quick Tips
In case you don’t have 12 minutes to read through this entire guide, here are some quick tips for visiting the National Postal Museum:
- Upon entering the National Postal Museum, head to the information desk for a scavenger hunt pamphlet + pencil. You’ll receive a small prize if filled out and returned at the end of your trip.
- This museum is highly interactive! There’s at least one interactive activity associated with each exhibit. Read more about the interactiveness in the Visiting with Children section.
- No food on site but Union Station is located across the street and has a bunch of food and drink options!
About the Museum
- Location: 2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E. Washington, DC 20002
- Closest Metro Stations: Union Station on the red line
- There’s street, metered parking near the museum that’s usually easy to get. Make sure to read the signs!
- The all-day paid parking garage for Union Station is located on H St. NE. and is about two blocks around the corner.
- Open daily except December 25th, when they are closed to the public.
- Hours of Operation: 10:00 am – 5:30 pm
- Admission: Free; no tickets required!
- Restrooms: Located on level 1 (bottom level) behind the escalators.
- Accessibility:
- The main entrance (Union Station side) at First St. & Massachusetts Ave. NE has a ramp.
- Wheelchairs are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Service animals and power scooters are allowed in the museum.
- All video presentations within exhibitions are captioned.
- The museum restrooms have accessible units.
- There are museum maps available in various languages at the information desk upon entry.
Read more about accessibility options at the National Postal Museum.
General Tips for Visiting
Upon entrance to the museum (if entering from the Union Station side), there are metal detectors to walk through. You’ll then see the information desk to the left of the hallway where you can pick up scavenger hunt pamphlets and a map of the museum.
Stroller parking is located on level 2 (entrance level) near the escalators.
The restrooms and lactation pod are located on level 1 (bottom level) behind the escalators.
There are also free storage lockers near the restrooms too.
No eating or drinking allowed in the galleries! Security tends to enforce this rule. I do, however, encourage you to bring snacks since there’s no on-site restaurants or cafes.
Level 2
If you enter the museum from the First St. & Massachusetts Ave. NE entrance (Union Station side), you’ll enter on level 2 or the upper level of the museum. This level has 7 exhibits/areas to visit and most are located within the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery.
- World of Stamps – Visual collection of stamps that includes Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the stamp that helped raise almost $72 million dollars for breast cancer research.
- Gems of American Philately – Stamps and pieces of mail can be rare & have interesting backstories! Pay attention to the 1918 Inverted Jenny story here for a surprising discovery.
- Mail Marks History – For the flight lovers, learn about Amelia Earhart’s travels & investigate markings on mail through an interactive adventure.
- Connect with U.S. Stamps – Learn about the history of some of your favorite stamps through this interactive display!
- National Stamp Salon – 275 pullout frames display tens of thousands of stamps and pieces of mail from the National Philatelic Collection along with the Postmaster General’s and Benjamin K. Miller collections.
- Stamps around the Globe – See how international stamps differ from the U.S. with this display of over 800 stamps.
- Postmaster’s Gallery
Level 1
As you move down to level 1, there are 7 more exhibits/areas to explore including a temporary exhibition gallery!
- Moving the Mail – See the different vehicles and aircraft that have carried the mail through time.
- Binding the Nation – Why was the postal system created in the first place? Learn how it became an early form of communication between the government and citizens.
- Customers and Communities – Examine the evolution of mail delivery to vastly expanding urban and rural populations in the 20th century.
- Systems at Work – See 10 different moments in the nation’s history that significantly impacted the postal system.
- Behind the Badge – Learn about the jobs of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, one of our nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agencies.
- Mail Call – Explore how the military postal system works and why the mail is an important resource for members of the armed forces.
- Special Exhibition Gallery
Tips for Visiting with Children
Are kids wildly interested in the mail? No, BUT there are ways to pique their interest by scoping out themes that may intrigue them like modes of transportation, creative writing, spy and espionage work, etc. I’ll help you determine which exhibits/activities to visit based on their interests in the sections below!
Visiting with Young Children (0-5)
The National Postal Museum is one of my FAVORITE places to bring the under 5 crew. It’s not a super big museum and it doesn’t get extremely crowded (even on weekends). Here are a couple of specific areas your younger kiddos may gravitate towards:
- Create the First Airmail Stamp Puzzle (located on level 2) – There’s a life sized (for littles) stamp puzzle within the World of Stamps exhibit. My son gravitated towards this puzzle when he was 2 and didn’t want to leave!
- Create Your Own Digital Stamp (located on level 2) and grab a handful of stamps to take home in the stamp gallery.
- Moving the Mail Exhibit (located on level 1) – When you head down stairs, look up to see large airplanes and a horse drawn carriage as well as mail trucks on the ground. Most of these modes of transportation are view-only, but kids can sit in the large blue Semi-Truck (towards the back of the floor on the right hand side).
- Fun fact: Parts of this exhibit has been in existence since the museum’s opening in 1993!
- Binding the Nation Exhibit (located on level 1) – There’s also a life-size stagecoach that littles can sit in with other life-like passengers in the Binding the Nation Exhibit. You’ll need to walk around to the end of this exhibit to see it.
- Delivering the Mail (located on level 1 within the Moving the Mail exhibit) – There’s an interactive mail delivery stand (close to the Behind the Badge exhibition) with different types of mailboxes that kids can grab letters and deliver mail to.
The Postal Museum also hosts bi-weekly Monday virtual story times! See the “Online Fun” section below for more on their online resources as well.
Visiting with Children (6-12)
The National Postal Museum is a very interactive museum with display boards, touchscreen activities and other challenges scattered throughout the museum. There are several interactive pieces and exhibits that older kids may be drawn to like:
- Create Your Own Stamp Collection (located on level 2) – Kids can browse through dozens of digital stamps and add them to their own collection in the Stamp Gallery. You can email up to 10 stamps to yourself.
- Wish You Were Here… Write a Postcard to Someone You Love (located on level 2 near the escalators) – There are free postcards that you can address and mail within the museum. You’ll need to pay for postage but there is a post office on-site to send it while there.
- Try Sorting the Mail in Mail by Rail (located on level 1) – Inside the Railway Mail Car, kids can sort mail based on a bunch of factors like location and stamp features.
- Design a Mailbox Challenge (located on level 1) – Within the Systems at Work exhibit, there’s a design challenge where kids and adults can create their own mailbox on a scroll of paper. See photos of this challenge below!
Visiting with Teens (13+)
Visiting with teens can get a bit tricky depending on their interests and level of care for the topic of mail. I suggest making it a shorter trip by going directly to the exhibits/interactive pieces that interest them the most. Here are some of the themes to plan by:
- International Affairs – See over 800 stamps from different countries in Stamps Around the Globe (located on level 2). This exhibit also includes Treasures of the World, where you’ll find info on famous and extraordinary stamps from around the world.
- Law Enforcement & Espionage Work – In one of the museum’s newer exhibits, Behind the Badge (located on level 1), viewers will gain a sense of the types of criminal activity the Postal Inspection Service investigates and responds to.
- History – Binding the Nation (located on level 1) takes a realistic approach to history with scenes of a wooded forest and a wide collection of newspapers from long ago. There’s also an interactive journey map within this section that older kids may favor over younger kids.
- Aviation – There are a few sections that talk about mail as it relates to air travel. The first is Mail Marks History within the Stamp Gallery (located on level 2). This exhibit is interesting because it discusses Amelia Earhart’s travels and displays one of her flight suits. It also delves into how the infamous Hope Diamond was mailed across ocean in an envelope for $2.44. The second is Airmail in America (located on level 1) where you can view airmail places in the museum’s atrium on the bottom level.
- Creative Writing – Write a postcard or two to someone you love at the Wish You Were Here… section located on level 2 near the escalators. Postcards are free but you’ll need to pay for postage if you mail them on-site. As you write, you can learn about early postcards sent by the Smithsonian Institution in the late 1800s.
Online Fun
Looking for some at-home or in-school resources? The National Postal Museum also hosts an online database of activities and resources to extend the fun outside of the museum. Here are some resources to bookmark:
- Hands-On Activities
- Love This ♥ Thank Your Mail Carrier Coloring Pages
- Design a Stamp activity
- Games + Quizzes
- Storytimes
- Bi-weekly on Mondays: Virtual Storytime with the National Postal Museum
- STAMP CAMP 2025 ~ The museum hosts a virtual summer camp for explorers ages 6 & up!
Food & Gifts + Union Station
No food or drinks on-site but there’s a Museum Shop located on level 1 (bottom level) near the escalators. This museum shop can get a bit pricey especially for limited edition merchandise but they also have sale items from time to time.
I highly recommend heading across the street to Union Station for quick bites to eat. Blue Bottle Coffee is one of my favorite cafes; their iced NOLA is sooo good! There’s a Shake Shack, CAVA and Chopt as well as DC’s location of Raising Cane’s at Union Station.
Here’s the listing of restaurants & eateries at Union Station.
Previous Exhibits
The Special Exhibition Gallery houses the Postal Museum’s temporary exhibits. Although these exhibits have come and gone, they may make a reappearance in the future! Here more on our experiences + links to view them on the museum’s website.
We visited the Baseball America’s Home Run exhibition in 2022 when Jack was 2 years old. There were some interactive features of this exhibit like sorting baseball stadium stamps and making your own baseball stamp but much of it was about learning how the postal service commemorated baseball through stamps, collectibles and other means. Some pieces of this exhibition are still on display on level 1 behind the escalators.
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