Royal Mail sent us this video today, which explains how you can use your Smartphone and the Great British Railways stamps to access a video of actor Bernard Cribbins reading W H Auden’s Night Mail: Could exclusive bonus content be the future of stamps? It’s a nice bonus for collectors, anyway. Filed under: Philatelic Tagged: Bernard Cribbins , Night Mail , philately , railways , stamps , W.H Auden  Read More →

Each month we present an object from the Morten Collection on this blog. The Morten Collection is a nationally important postal history collection currently held at Bruce Castle , Tottenham. As part of a Heritage Lottery Funded project, Pistols, Packets and Postmen , the BPMA, Bruce Castle Museum and the Communication Workers Union (the owner of the Collection) are working together to widen access…  Read More →

Arts organisation Illumini have curated Secret Subterranean London , a week of events exploring the labyrinth below the streets of London, which starts next Friday. As part of the season our Curator Chris Taft will give a free talk on the Post Office Underground Railway which was used to carry post through central London. Loading carriages on the Post Office Underground Railway with mail bags In the early 20th Century mail traffic through London... 

A fifth postcard is now available in the popular series promoting the London 2010: Festival of Stamps . This postcard looks at the stamps produced for the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935. The postcard features a photographic portrait of George V by Vandyk, alongside essays from 1934 that used this image at two different sizes. It also features an essay with an alternative portrait by Bertram Mackennal, which was much preferred by George... 

Several BPMA staff and Friends had a very enjoyable two days at Bletchley Park over the Bank Holiday weekend.  We were there as part of the Post Office at War weekend, an event organised as part of the London 2010 Festival of Stamps . BPMA Friend Richard West and Exhibitions Officer Alison Norris staff the BPMA table The BPMA had a table where we could meet visitors to Bletchley Park and let them know about the BPMA and its collections. Several... 

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890 – 1954) was one of the most significant designers of the 20 th century, noted for a unique style which embraced a number of different influences and techniques: his work drew on impressionism , cubism and vorticism amongst a number of other movements and ideas. Kauffer was one of the leading exponents of what became known as graphic design, combining typography, abstraction and photographic elements, and utilising... 

Are trains and railways the most covered topic on British commemorative stamps? A survey of the topic certainly suggests as much. We counted 19 British stamp issues which feature something related to the railways – toy trains, famous trains, railway stations and infrastructure, the invention of steam power and the locomotive, even a pub sign with a train on it. Now a 20th issue – Great British Railways – can join the list. Great British... 

Airmail etiquettes reading “By Air Mail / Par Avion” were first used in Britain in mid-August 1920, making them 80 years old this month. Their introduction came less than a year after the first international scheduled public airmail service, from London to Paris, started and almost exactly two years after the French had first applied airmail etiquettes reading “Par Avion” to their airmails, on the inaugural Paris to Saint-Nazaire flight.... 

This coming Bank Holiday Monday, Vyki Sparkes, Assistant Curator at the BPMA will give a short talk at Bletchley Park on a little known story of heroism and bravery: Frederick G. Gurr and the GPO Rescue and Salvage Squad. The talk is one of many activities taking place at Bletchley Park as part of the Post Office at War weekend. During the Blitz in the Second World War the Salvage Squad were featured in newspapers, a radio broadcast, and Gurr,... 

by Martha Aitchison, Mail Artist In June the Beckenham Sorting Office hosted a small exhibition, very different from the usual art show. This was an international exhibition of fake postage stamps, made by artists and therefore called Artistamps, to which 53 artists from 18 countries responded. I organised it in recognition of the contribution made by the postal services to Mail Art, an art movement that started in the 1960’s, consisting in... 

by Stuart Aitken, Collections Assistant The entire collection of King George V registration sheets is now fully accessible on our online catalogue . Registration sheets, often imperforate, exist as the very first prints taken from the printing plate for each stamp in sheet form. The collection consists of 1,027 sheets in total. The reign of King George V (6th May 1910 – 20th January 1936) marked one of the most fascinating eras of British... 

The exhibition space at Bruce Castle by Adrian Steel, Director Last week I visited Bruce Castle Museum in Tottenham, North London, to see their ‘Postal People’ exhibition which runs until the end of the year. Bruce Castle has been a museum since 1906, but is strongly connected with postal reformer Rowland Hill whose family ran a progressive school for boys there during the Victorian period. Greetings telegram artwork ‘Postal People’... 

by Miriam Hay As someone doing three weeks work experience at The British Postal Museum & Archive, I was given the opportunity to attend the first two days of the de-installation of the recent Empire Mail exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery . It was a unique chance to see behind the scenes of the BPMA at the work that goes into such an event, much of which will go unnoticed by the public if all goes to plan. Conservator at work The... 

by Claire McHugh, Cataloguer (Collections) To continue from my last blog on early postal uniforms , the adoption in 1840 of a Uniform Penny Post and other related reforms initiated by Rowland Hill encouraged the development of the Post Office; this growth was reflected in the increasing workforce and the amount of uniform needing to be issued. In 1851 it was estimated the …  Read More →

  In the 70s and 80s artist Ronald Maddox travelled throughout the United Kingdom making drawings and paintings for the Post Office, Royal Mail and BT. The resulting images later appeared on stamps, first day covers, posters, aerogrammes, telephone directories and stamp books. In a talk given here in May, Ronald Maddox reflected on more than two decades of work. This talk is now available on our podcast. Village Churches, 1972 One of Ronald...