SHOW MENUPostal Museum Publications
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- Post Office Archives Information Sheets 1984-88
- British Postal Museum and Archive Information Sheets 2005-09
- NPM and BPMA Exhibition Documents 1967-2015
- National Postal Museum Annual Reports 1988-96
- British Postal Museum and Archive Newsletters 2013-14
- Miscellaneous Postal Museum and Archives Documents 1969-2016
The Postal Museum looks after 400+ years of postal heritage. It combines the archives of Royal Mail Group PLC and Post Office Ltd (originally the Post Office Archives, POA) with the National Postal Museum (NPM), opened in 1969 to house the collection of Victorian philately donated to the nation by Reginald M. Phillips. A collection of postal equipment, uniforms, vehicles etc were added over the years.
In 1998 the building was sold and the NPM closed. The collections were retained and the NPM and POA combined in 2004 as an independent charitable trust, the British Postal Museum and Archive (BPMA), renamed The Postal Museum in 2016. A new building opened in 2017 near the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre, London.
This section consists of documents produced by the museum and archives, reproduced with permission. Some were scanned from original paper versions, others were downloadable as PDFs.
(For opening times etc consult the current TPM website, not these files! See also the Cross Post journal of the Friends of the NPM.)
Post Office Archives Information Sheets 1984-88
Sheets on various topics originally issued by the Post Office Archives in the 1980s (scanned).
Pillar Boxes
[9pp, 4.6MB, 1988]
Info Sheet 1
Post Office Cats
[5pp, 3.3MB, 1988]
Info Sheet 4
Early Post Offices
[10pp, 5.3MB, 1988]
Info Sheet 5
Postal Uniforms
[9pp, 4.9MB, 1988]
Info Sheet 6
Mail Coach Service
[16pp, 7.8MB, 1989]
Info Sheet 8
Postal Headquarters
[7pp, 4.6MB, 1988]
Info Sheet 9
St Valentines Day
[4pp, 3.4MB, 1986]
Info Sheet 15
Post Office 1635-1969
[5pp, 2.9MB, 1984]
Info Sheet 16
Railways and the Post
[10pp, 8.6MB, 1988]
Info Sheet 26
Court Post Office
[8pp, 4.6MB, 1988]
Info Sheet 27
Postal Districts
[2pp, 1.0MB, 1988]
Info Sheet 31
British Postal Museum and Archive Information Sheets 2005-09
Sheets on various topics originally issued by the British Postal Museum and Archive in the 2000s (as PDFs).
Airmail
[2pp, 24KB, 2005]
Animals in the Post Office
[2pp, 25KB, 2005]
Assistant Postmasters General
[2pp, 95KB, 2009]
Bicycles and Motorcycles
[2pp, 25KB, 2005]
Caring for stamps and postal history
[3pp, 149KB, 2005]
History of Disability in the Post Office
[4pp, 108KB, 2005]
The Postal History of India
[3pp, 207KB, 2007]
Local History
[2pp, 26KB, 2005]
The Mail Coach Service
[2pp, 24KB, 2005]
Mail Rail (Post Office Underground Railway)
[2pp, 27KB, 2005]
A History of Mount Pleasant
[2pp, 36KB, 2005]
Distributing Pensions
[4pp, 127KB, 2009]
Pillar Boxes
[3pp, 208KB, 2009]
Post Office Job Descriptions 1832
[11pp, 136KB, 2008]
Postcodes
[2pp, 29KB, 2005]
Postmasters General
[2pp, 132KB, 2005]
The Post Office Rifles
[3pp, 30KB, 2009]
Post Office Uniforms: Key dates
[2pp, 25KB, 2005]
The Post Office during WWII
[3pp, 30KB, 2005]
Royal Mail Transport: Key dates
[4pp, 36KB, 2005]
Secretaries to the Post Office
[3pp, 101KB, 2005]
Sergeant Alfred Knight VC
[2pp, 191KB, 2005]
The Travelling Post Office
[2pp, 27KB, 2005]
NPM and BPMA Exhibition Documents 1967-2015
Documents published by the NPM or BPMA from time to time in connection with exhibitions, often related to an anniversary, giving a longer look at a particular topic.
De La Rue Surface Printed Stamps
[3pp, 1.6MB, 1967]
Britannia Depicta – Quality, Value and Security
[12pp, 3.6MB, 1993]
Victorian Innovation 1837-1901
[16pp, 8.0MB, 2005]
Elizabeth – Queen and Icon
[8pp, 837KB, 2006]
A Timeless Classic – Machin Evolution
[6pp, 2.5MB, 2007]
Printing British Postage Stamps – GBPS Visit
[12pp, 6.1MB, 2007]
Lions, Leopards, Unicorns and Dragons [Regionals]
[6pp, 2.8MB, 2008]
Gentleman on Stamps
[6pp, 2.5MB, 2009]
The David Gentleman Album
[18pp, 7.7MB, 2009]
Printing British Postage Stamps
[18pp, 7.7MB, 2011]
Diamond Jubilee
[12pp, 5.6MB, 2012]
Penny Black 175
[12pp, 6.1MB, 2015]
National Postal Museum Annual Reports 1988-96
These were printed annually from 1988 to 1998, under the title The Philatelic Year from 1988 to 1991, then Review from 1992 to 1998. A cumulative index for 1988-96 compiled by Jean Alexander appeared in the 1997-98 Review.
Philatelic Year 1988
[32pp, 16.6MB, 1989]
Philatelic Year 1989
[32pp, 5.2MB, 1990]
Philatelic Year 1990
[32pp, 5.4MB, 1991]
Philatelic Year 1991
[32pp, 5.7MB, 1992]
Index 1988-91
[4pp, 7.1MB, 1994]
NPM Review 1992
[32pp, 5.2MB, 1993]
NPM Review 1993
[36pp, 20.3MB, 1994]
NPM Review 1994
[44pp, 18.7MB, 1995]
NPM Review 1995
[48pp, 20.6MB, 1996]
NPM Review 1996
[44pp, 23.4MB, 1997]
NPM Review 1997-98
[44pp, 21.6MB, 1998]
Index 1988-96
[6pp, 2.4MB, 1997]
British Postal Museum and Archive Newsletters 2013-14
These were printed several times a year with updates from the museum and various articles.
Winter 2013 (January)
[24pp, 21.5MB, 2013]
Christmas 2013
[8pp, 1.1MB, 2013]
February 2014
[16pp, 43MB, 2014]
June 2014
[16pp, 37MB, 2014]
November 2014
[28pp, 60MB, 2014]
Miscellaneous Postal Museum and Archives Documents 1969-2016
Assorted documents that do not fall into any of the above categories.
NPM Opening Ceremony
[24pp, 22.4MB, 1969]
Post Offices and King Edward Building
[4pp, 2.6MB, 1998]
The Machin Head of the Queen
[6pp, 2.1MB, 2004]
Victorian Era of British Stamps
[8pp, 3.0MB, 2004]
A Guide to Family History Research
[66pp, 1.4MB, 2016]
