Launching COVID-19 and the Post

Today, The Postal Museum have announced a public call out for letters, envelopes, greetings cards and packaging from Lockdown – the latest chapter in the 500-year old story of postal services in the UK.

As part of the project ‘COVID-19 and the Post’, the museum is seeking donations of items from across the UK, to add to the museum’s collection, telling the story of Lockdown through items sent and received in the post since March.

Chris Taft, Head of Collections, said:

“Postal networks have long been a part of our social infrastructure, but the COVID-19 emergency has created new and different meanings to the purpose and value of the post. We want our museum collections to reflect how postal operations have changed to deal with the pandemic, how people are using the post to maintain personal relationships and the importance of the post to the economy.

Our museum might be based in London, but our collections represent the whole of the country, so we want to reach far and wide to capture how the post is connecting people across the UK and the world at this moment in time.”

The project will provide a vital resource to understand the changing uses and the importance of the post in this unprecedented time. It is the first phase of an ongoing project collecting objects and personal accounts to reflect the shifting relationships people have with the post and the impact on postal and delivery workers.

Visit the COVID-19 and the Post to find out more and to submit items you might want to donate.