Beating the beaten path in Washington DC (II)
In my second article on out-of-the-way things to see in the US capital, I turn to the question of museums.
In this respect the visitor to Washington faces a bewildering array of choices. Smithsonian’s this, National that — the city has galleries and exhibition halls for everything, including bonsai. And they all free, adding to the bewilderment.
I will focus on two gems that are easily missed amid this cutarotial cornucopia.
First — when it comes to museums at least — go postal. Next door to Union Station is an enchanting venue dedicated to the history of the US mail service.
Let me whet your appetite with a few snippets I gained from my eye-opening visit to the National Postal Museum.
The stamp was invented not in America but in Britain. Until the 1830s, sending a letter from A to B could be a frustrating endeavour. First you had to find someone with “franking privilege”, such as a member of parliament. Those with less elevated connections just sent letters on spec, leaving recipients to pay the postman if they felt like it. It the person at the other was not willing or able to pay, the missives were just chucked away.
God know how many love letters were lost, and incipient romances smothered, in this way. In 1837, a retired schoolteacher from Cheltenham, one Rowland Hill, had a better idea. He wrote a pamphlet proposing that postal fees should be pre-paid with a “bit of paper covered at the back with a glutinous wash”.
At first the proposal met with officious resistance. The Postmaster General said: “A ridiculous idea. It will never catch on. Every letter I’ve ever received was successfully delivered.”
Thankfully that benighted civil servant was soon replaced, and in 1840 Britain issued the word’s first stamp, the Penny Black. It was an instant hit. From then on, mail could be delivered anywhere in the UK for a standard fee.
The US was among the first countries to adopt stamps in a big way. But delivery was a problem in a growing country with expanding, often lawless confines.
This is where the American genius for experimentation came into play.
Transporting mail was farmed out to various private contractors. First stagecoach operators offered their services. But sacks of letters were often dumped on the way to make room for paying passengers, and the Post Office Department put an end to the arrangement.
In 1860, a businessman launched a dedicated service to carry mail on horseback. A relay system, with way stations placed every 10 miles or so, was set up across the 2000-mile route between Missouri and California.
The Pony Express — with its riders hurtling through the treacherous wilderness — became the stuff of legend. The service cut delivery times in half. But as the exhibit reveals, it was never profitable and folded after two years.
The next innovation was the train, which further reduced delivery times. Unfortunately, it also reduced the life expectancy of the staff. Postal carriages, made of cheap word and often placed directly behind the engine, were little more than combustible coffins of wheels.
Between 1890 and 1905, more than 140 Railway Mail Service employees were killed and thousands injured in derailments or fires.
These and many other amazing facts await the visitor to the National Postal Museum. RMS workers could also be a danger to bystanders, as the sign above makes clear.
I also strongly recommend the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Georgetown, which holds fabulous collections of indigenous art.
The wing devoted to Native American peoples is particularly impressive.
It showcases objects from the cultures that preceded or were subsumed by big Amerindian empires — from the Tiwanaku near Lake Titicaca to the Moche and Cupisnique of the northern Andes, the Olmec and Zapotec in Mesoamerica and Teotihuacan of Mexico’s highlands.
The displays are exquisitely arranged in rooms that look out on the gardens of Dumbarton Oaks mansion.
The house was the venue of the “Washington Conversations”, the 1944 conference that founded the United Nations. The grand hall where leaders convened, as well as the gardens divided into secluded “rooms” where they met for quiet bilaterals in leafy settings, should also be part of your visit.
