The Canadian Postal Museum is the only museum in Canada dedicated to preserving the heritage of Canadian postal communication and objects representative of the international postal heritage. The collection covers ancient and modern history, science and technology, philately, fine art, architecture, folk art, and the decorative arts.
The collection comprises over 150,000 items (counting the tens of thousands of philatelic items). While the subject focus is narrow - postal communication - the scope of the collection is multi-disciplinary. Over the last five years the collection has grown by about 150 objects each year (excluding philately).
Examples of artifacts associated with...
...the creation of a message
-
Portable writing desk, ink well and other writing tools belonging to Sir
Sandford Fleming, designer of Canada's first postage stamp; messages
carried by hot air balloon during the Siege of Paris in 1870; mail art;
Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablets.
photo: Claire Dufour
...the mailing
-
Canadian and foreign letter boxes; equal arm, candlestick
and platform fan scales; postage stamps; post office
wickets; stamp boxes.
Cancellation hammers and hand stamps; registration hand stamps; cancellation hammers from the Royal Train; cancellation machines and slogan dies; mail bag sporting postal workers' graffiti; the first memory unit used in the automation of mail sorting; railway mail car equipment; parcel containers.
photo: Claire Dufour
...the routing and delivery
-
Scale models of ships and railway mail car; leather mail bag; Canadian
and foreign letter carrier uniforms; wicker hamper for transporting mail;
letter carrier ice grippers; jeep.
photo: Claire Dufour
...the receipt of a message
-
Elements of post office architecture; lock boxes;
residential and rural mail boxes; registered mail ledgers;
post office signs.
See the Philatelic Treasures . . .
a selection of artifacts from the collection . . .
and others in the Treasures
Gallery
