Ohio museum delivers postal history

I love specialty museums, so seeing a sign for the Museum of Postal History on a building in Delphos, Ohio, aroused my curiosity.

It turns out that this is one of only three museums in the United States dedicated to postal history. The other two are the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum in Washington D.C. and the US Postal Museum at the Post Office in Marshall, Michigan (yet another excuse for a road trip!).

Between the tour we took with museum staffer Patty Kline and email correspondence with museum director Gary Levitt, I learned a lot about postal history and Delphos' unique museum.

Levitt began collecting postal artifacts in 1993, shortly after becoming the Delphos postmaster.

By 1995, the Museum of Postal History opened in the Delphos Post Office.

Levitt retired from the postal service in 2007 as the museum outgrew its quarters in the post office, and museum officials purchased an 11,000-square-foot building in 2008. The building, originally built as a livery in 1902, allowed the museum to expand its exhibits.

"The horses were kept upstairs, and there was a ramp built up the back of the building so they could get the horses up there," says Levitt. "It was an implements dealership, and for many years, the city's recreation center. It was an Eagles lodge for several years, a restaurant, a fun house, a bar, and a dance hall."

Museum mural in progress

Work continues on the museum as volunteers renovate the building, organize exhibits, and work on several murals throughout the museum, including one that pictures the building in its original incarnation as a livery.

Levitt's ideas for the future include establishing a children's area at the museum with a kid-sized post office and the Wee Deliver literacy program.

There are plenty of stamps at the museum, but I think some of the most interesting exhibits involving stamps were displays of stamps mixed with related memorabilia like a baseball-themed display I saw during our visit. I thought that was a fun and imaginative way to look at stamps, and we started imagining the many types of themed shows you could develop centering on commemorative stamps and related memorabilia.

"There is something to interest everyone. We are not just stamps, but we do have hundreds of thousands of them," says Levitt, who enjoys the surprised reactions of visitors when they discover the museum includes many other items like antique postal vehicles, unique mailboxes, photographs, and a library.

I liked the museum's collection of postal vehicles, which includes horse-drawn wagons like the early 1900s Harrington Rural Free Delivery coach and quirkier conveyances like the 1959 Eschelman three-wheeler.

The Eschelman is one of only 59 produced. The quarter-ton vehicle could carry up to 500 pounds of mail, but postal carriers didn't like it because it tipped over easily (although they could right it nearly as easily by themselves). Carriers also didn't like the fact that the driver had to sit over the engine, inhaling exhaust fumes as they drove their route.

Levitt sees the "power of the written word" as one of the ways the mail service recorded and influenced our history, and some of the most powerful examples of this power in the museum are displays related to the Holocaust.

The museum's "Dear Cousin" exhibit follows correspondence between cousins, Max Schohl and Julius Hess. Schohl sought the help of Hess in Charlestown, WV, to escape Nazi persecution in Germany and immigrate to the United States. Schohl's story sadly ends with his death at Auschwitz, although his wife and daughters survived the camps and immigrated to the United States after World War II.

"In the ghettos and concentration camps, they had to make their own stamps or script and set up a mail system," says Levitt. "The Nazis were meticulous about having those interned to write to family members back home and tell them how well they were doing. Mail was censored as well."

The museum's collection also includes correspondence from passengers aboard the S.S. St. Louis during the infamous 'Voyage of the Damned' where 938 Jewish passengers sought escape from the Third Reich, sailing from Europe and back again after the United States' refusal to allow them off of the ship.

The museum is on the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental paved highway that connected Delphos to the rest of the United States in 1912. It was my idea to explore the western Ohio section of the Lincoln Highway that brought us to Delphos.

Admission is free, or just the promise that visitors will return and bring someone else with them as Levitt cheerfully says on the "Welcome" video played in the museum's lobby.

Museum hours are currently 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Thursday, 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, or by appointment.

Want to learn more about postal history and historical events portrayed on stamps? Check out An American Postal Portrait: A Photographic Legacy by the United States Postal Service, William J. Henderson, James Bruns and Carl Burcham or An American History Album: The Story of the United States Told Through Stamps by Michael Worek, Jordan Worek, Terrence W. McCaffrey and the United States Postal Service.

Learn more about the cousins, Schohl and Hess in And The World Closed Its Doors: The Story of One Family Abandoned To The Holocaust by David Clay Large and the voyage of the S.S. St. Louis in Voyage of the Damned: A Shocking True Story of Hope, Betrayal, and Nazi Terror by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts or Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust by Sarah A. Ogilvie and Scott Miller.

© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved

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Comments

[Gary S. Levitt]

It is so gratifying to see these articles the day after we had a ceremony honoring Dr. Walter W. Wolery. Since the publication that appeared in Midwest Guest, we have gutted the museum and started from scratch. All was completed and dedicated on Feb 19, 2012. Our website is a work in progress but the three minute tour will give you a better understanding of what we are today. Five murals including a 3D mural of the Capitol Theatre have been completed along with our to creation of a 15 foot Railway Mail Service compartment as was used in Delphos on the AC&Y railway. Please call me for more information. 419-303-5482 or 419-204-5315

[Dominique King]

Thanks for keeping in touch, Gary. I'm glad to hear that the museum is still going strong and improving its collection. It was a very interesting visit when we were there last year, and I'll look forward to checking in with you when we're back out your way!

[Anne O'Keefe]

It is nice to see another stamp museum doing good work with education and preservation of postal history here in the United States. Being from the Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History in Weston, MA and being the oldest stamp museum in the United States, we are always please to see more being done to education the general public related to Postal History. Keep up the good work.

[Dominique King]

Thanks for stopping by, Anne. Who knew that postal history was so fascinating!?

[Danny Schleeter]

Gary I need a program for. Methodist. Men. Supper. Jan 7. 6:30. Pm. Can you help ph me Danny. Schleeter. 419 202 6776. Thanks

[Dominique King]

Hi Danny-

I'll try to forward your message to Gary...or you can try connecting with him on Facebook at Gary S. Levitt

[Dave McWhorter]

Hello, I have acquired the minutes for the Ohio postmaster Annual meeting held back in the 1930's. I would like to track down the name of the person that wrote the minutes in the book.Any ideas?

Thanks Dave

[Dominique King]

Dave-
You should contact Gary (the museum's founder and curator) directly and ask this question. Here's the link for contacting the museum http://postalhistorymuseum.org/about/contact/ -- or you can try connecting with Gary directly on Facebook (Gary S. Levitt). Hopefully, he'll be able to give you a good answer :)