By the early 1900s railroads were an integral component of mail delivery, with rail cars like this one. Post offices in large cities had to be built as near as possible to the main railroad station. The National Postal Museum, which opened as a post office in 1917, was connected to Union Station in Washington, D.C., by a bridge to move the mail. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

I failed the test to be able work at the post office. Well, what I actually failed was the test at the National Postal Museum.

After inputting as many ZIP codes as I could, the screen said, “Oops. There are a lot of people who will be kept waiting for their mail today. This may not be the job for you.”

Crossing the Postal Service off as potential employer.

While in Washington, D.C., last month, this was my first time to visit this building that has been a museum since 1993. Prior to that it was the main post office for the District of Columbia for 72 years.

Finally, I know what a ZIP code represents: The first digit is the region of the country, next two numbers stand for a central post office facility in the region, while the last two represent a post office or a postal zone.

Bar codes are now used, with machines making it easier and faster to sort mail.

Various stages of the USPS’ history are on display at the museum. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

“… the USPS has used 5, 6, 9, and now 31-digit barcodes to steadily increase the speed and accuracy of mail delivery. The extra bars include ‘carrier sort’ level coding that sorts the mail to the order it’s delivered in,” the museum explains.

While I don’t receive or send much mail these days, I still love sending and receiving personal correspondence. Birthday cards and random postcards are what I mostly send and receive.

It amazes me for less than a dollar a letter can find its way across the country in a few days.

The museum has free postcards people can write there, with a post office downstairs to buy a stamp, with the receiver getting a unique cancellation across it. A couple friends received one from me.

I had to laugh at the exhibit about bad handwriting and incomplete addresses. Sometimes I’m amazed my letters get to people based on my scrawl. The Dead Letter Office tries to make sure letters eventually wind up at their intended destination. Maybe I should check with everyone I send a card to see if they’ve received it or if the Postal Service is scratching their heads.

“The official postal system of the new United States began in 1792. Over the next decade and a half, it grew faster than it has ever since. Mailing letters was expensive at first, to help subsidize the cost of mailing newspapers the crucial long-distance information system of the times,” reads one panel. “In 1800, postal officials began using selected post offices as distribution centers, where mail for large areas was processed and sent on. This ‘hub-and-spoke’ system is in use again today.”

Boxes from what was the main post office in Washington are part of the museum. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

The first stamp was created in 1840 by former schoolteacher Rowland Hill.

“In 1837 Hill published a pamphlet entitled Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability. In this document, Hill recommended that postal fees be prepaid with ‘a bit of paper … covered at the back with a glutinous wash. The British government incorporated Hill’s idea in the British postal reforms of 1839.”

In the U.S. the first stamps were a 5-center with Benjamin Franklin and 10-center with George Washington’s image.

It was in 1855, that prepaid stamps were mandatory.

“Lower rates and prepaid postage stamps brought the cost of sending first-class mail within reach of many more Americans. This encouraged more reading and writing, letters to distant friends and relatives, business transactions, and communication of many kinds across the growing United States,” the museum reports.

While I’ve never been a stamp collector, it’s possible to take home six old stamps from a box you can sift through. It’s also possible to create a stamp with your image on it—though you can’t use it.

This history of the mail service and associated instruments of the system like stamps are fascinating.

As the museum says, “Stamps record the histories and cultures of all nations, connecting people and places worldwide. They show how people from different cultures have depicted themselves and others over time. Stamps also reveal how different countries have represented universal themes, such as the wonders of the natural world, in both unique and surprisingly similar ways.”