The National Postal Museum is located in the City Post Office Building in Washington, D.C. It was designed by the Graham and Burnham architectural firm and built in 1914. The building also houses the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a local post office. By the way, the National Postal Museum was established through joint agreement between the United States Postal Service and the Smithsonian Institution and opened in 1993. The Museum occupies 75,000 square feet of the building with 23,000 square feet devoted to exhibition space. The Museum also houses a 6,000-square-foot research library, a stamp store and a museum shop.

What else? The National Postal Museum is divided into galleries that explore America’s postal history from colonial times to the present. Visitors learn how mail has been transported, emphasize the importance of letters, and spotlight the creation and wondrous diversity of postage stamps. Online exhibits will produce an unforgettable impression, because you will learn interesting information about war letters, art of the stamp, see stamps that changed the world and more intelligent content.

The most important point, however, is that the museum gives just about everybody a chance to make a tour of the history of the United States Postal Service and of mail service around the world. Interactive displays accompany visitors with a vast collection of stamps, which you can buy right on the spot. Of course, virtual reality and online tours can hardly take the place of lively descriptions and real presence. The Museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., except December 25. Admission is free.

Technorati Tags: postal museum, postal service, mail, post, letters, postage stamps, washington, envelopes

Russia in the past. News exchange dates from the Stone Age. At that time people conveyed information by means of fire fogs, beating signal drums, horn sounds. Records mention a system of messengers in the 10th century. Early letters were carried in the form of a roll, with a wax or lead seal. But it became a thing of the past.

Nowadays the Unitary enterprise postal service of Russia is responsible for the delivery of mail in Russia and the issuing of stamps. Russian Post is a founding member of the Universal Postal Union. The Day of Russian Post is celebrated each second Sunday of July. In 1996 Ministry of Communications of the RF for the first time ever broke state postal monopoly on special postal services. As a result of the policy a lot of commercial postal enterprises appeared in Russia. Courier delivery of postal items, pension and allowances, parcel forwarding, distribution of periodicals were among new services.

According to Russian Post Press Center, Russian national postal operator FSUE Russian Post and one of the largest universal postal operator company TNT N. V. set the basis of cooperation. The Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Acting Director General of FSUE Russian Post Andrey Konoval and General Director of TNT N. V. Peter Bakker on 6th November 2007 shows main trends and order of companies’ interaction.

The cooperation implies application of logistics system of Russian Post for delivery of TNT mails within the territory of the Russian Federation and application of TNT company means concerning EMS mails delivered from Russia in Europe.

And we can’t but mention one more news regarding not only Russian postal service, but Ukrainian and Belorussian ones. This month national postal operators of Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia signed the agreement on international registered postal items exchange by means of FSUE Russian Post’s server at 38th session of Council of Communications Heads of the Regional Commonwealth in the field of Communications (RCC) held on 13th November in Astana. Now customers can trace international registered postal items on-line. This allows improving service quality and reducing loss of items at the minimal level.

Technorati Tags: post, postal service, russia, belarus, ukraine, postage stamps, postcards, tnt

Have you ever thought of a man who delivers postcards, newspapers and mail in general to your house every day? Do you know what kind of work does letter carrier do to make you well-informed, happy and satisfied? Probably some out of there know your personal postman by sight and shake your hands on meeting?! Nevertheless, these people serve well.

Besides, a postman goes under different names in various countries. For example, sometimes he is known as a mailman or letter carrier in North America or New Zealand and a postie in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Nowadays women work and manage on a level with men, therefore the term “mail carrier” came to be used as a gender-neutral substitute for “mailman”.

It would be interesting to know that in the United States, the official label for a mail carrier is “letter carrier”. There are three types of letter carriers: city letter carriers, who are represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers; rural letter carriers, who are represented by the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association; and Highway Contract Route carriers, who are independent contractors.

By the way, I came across the article ‘Work of a Rural Postman in 1891′. The life of a rural postman was very hard in 1891 due to the duties than included:

“Not to carry parcels by their string . . .”
“No calling ‘by’ while working . . .”
“No smoking on duty . . .”
“No lobbying about pay and conditions to the public . . .”
“Not to be connected directly or indirectly to the ownership or management of a public house . . .”
“He is forbidden to agitate for the discontinuance of a Sunday delivery.”
“He must live where he starts his walk.”
“Uniform to be worn at all times when on duty.”

And it must be mentioned that everybody can work as a postman. Any special education and degree is unnecessary. Candidates are selected following an aptitude test and interview. If you have a calling for this job, you are reliable, honest and trustworthy and want to follow it, try it!

Technorati Tags: postman, mail, postal service, postcards, letters, traditional mail, mail carrier, postie, mailman