* Corporate Information, United States Postal Service
* National Archives and Records Administration
* National Personnel Records Center
* National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution
* Railway Mail Service Library
* Pony Express Museums and Libraries

Corporate Information, United States Postal Service

The Postal Service's Historian and Library, units of Corporate Information, have collections of postal histories and historical material. Persons interested in learning more about a particular aspect of United States postal history or obtaining information on post offices and postmasters are invited to write to:

Historian, Corporate Information Service, United States Postal Service, 475 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20260-0012.

Persons wishing to research postal history are welcome to visit the Postal Service Library. The Library is located at the above address; its ZIP+4 code is 20260-1540.

National Archives and Records Administration

Postal records prior to 1971 are kept at the National Archives and Records Administration. Two of the records most useful to postal historians, postmaster appointment records and post office site location reports, are preserved on microfilm and easily accessible to researchers.
The primary sources for information on post offices and postmasters are National Archives Microfilm Publication M 1131, Record of Appointment of Postmasters, October 1789-1832, and Microfilm Publication M841, Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-September 30, 1971. These records show the names of post offices, the dates of their establishment and discontinuance, name changes, and names and appointment dates of postmasters. Beginning in 1870, the records indicate the names of post offices to which mail was sent from discontinued offices, as well as information on money order post offices and presidential appointments.
These publications can be purchased for $23 per roll, payable by check or money order to the National Archives Trust Fund,

National Archives and Records Administration, Eighth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20408-0001.

Site location reports typically show the location of post offices relative to other post offices, transportation routes, and facilities; some include small grid maps. The series has been reproduced in Microfilm Publication M1126, Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations, 1837-1950. Copies for specific post offices can be purchased for 25 cents a page, with a minimum order of $6. The Archives also will furnish copies of Publication M1126 for $23 a roll.

National Personnel Records Center

The National Personnel Records Center, Civilian Personnel Records (NCPC), is part of the National Archives and Records Administration. Located at

111 Winnebago Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63118-4199,

the Records Center maintains extant personnel records for federal employees whose service ended after about 1910. These records are available for examination at the Records Center or by mail. However, records less than 75 years old are closed to public examination.
Researchers requesting records from the Records Center should provide the full name of the employee, date of birth, Social Security number (if known), name of agency where last employed, and place and approximate dates of employment.

National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution

The National Postal Museum opened July 30, 1993, and offers exhibits tracing the history of the postal system in the United States. It houses 16 million postal-related items, mostly stamps, and includes a library with 140,000 reference works and 10,000 illustrations. The library is open to the public by appointment.
The National Postal Museum is located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C. Its mailing address is

National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560-0001.

Railway Mail Service Library

The Railway Mail Service Library includes artifacts, mail route schedules, schemes of mail distribution, and publications relating to the Railway Mail Service/Postal Transportation Service. The Library is open by appointment but handles most requests by mail.
For more information, write to the curator at

12 East Rosemont Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22301-2325.

Pony Express Museums and Libraries

Pony Express National Memorial, Post Office Box 244, St. Joseph, MO 64502-0244

St. Joseph Museum Library, 1100 Charles Street, St. Joseph, MO 64501-2875

The Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108-1218

Utah State Historical Society, 300 Rio Grande Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1106

The Wells Fargo Bank History Department, MAC 0101-026, 420 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94163-1205