U.S. Postal Service to celebrate 250th anniversary amid Trump threats to privatize

The U.S. Postal Service is celebrating its 250th anniversary this weekend, and you won’t have to check your mailbox for the invite. 

The agency’s semiquincentennial will be marked by an event at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, two and a half centuries since its founding. Two newly announced commemorative stamps will also mark the occasion.

USPS was founded as the U.S. Post Office Department on July 26, 1775, by decree of the Second Continental Congress. In 1970, Congress reorganized USPOD from a cabinet-level department into an independent agency — the modern USPS. Historians see the establishment of a national postal service as a crucial factor in ensuring the young country stayed unified during the Revolutionary War. 

One of the new commemorative stamps, announced Wednesday by USPS, features Benjamin Franklin in a modern interpretation of one of the first two U.S. postage stamps ever produced in 1847. Franklin, a participant in the Second Continental Congress, briefly served as the first U.S. postmaster general after serving in the equivalent role under British rule from 1757 to 1774.

The other stamp celebrates men and women of the agency with a new collection of cityscape illustrations depicting a postal worker on her route through all four seasons. A 32-page booklet — only the fourth ever released by USPS — was also announced Wednesday and is set to feature selected stamp artwork from across the service’s history.

David Steiner, the newly appointed U.S. postmaster general, said that the new stamps represent enduring values every American can learn from, including perseverance, trust and imagination.

“For the United States Postal Service, today is a milestone 250 years in the making,” Steiner said in a statement Wednesday. “These stamps will serve as a window into our shared history.”

The museum does not comment on current or political events. 

Saturday’s celebration comes months after sources said President Trump was mulling folding the USPS into the Commerce Department, or even possibly privatizing it. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced he would be leaving the position in February, and Steiner, a former FedEx board member, took over earlier this month in the position. 

Steiner told USPS employees that he “did not believe that the Postal Service should be privatized or that it should become an appropriated part of the federal government.” 

But Saturday, the National Postal Museum family-friendly Postal Party will be celebrating. The museum will feature activities, crafts and games, as well as a Franklin reenactor, allowing kids to learn postal history directly from the founding father. Other historic touchpoints set to be highlighted at the event include Owney, the 19th century terrier that served as an unofficial Postal Service mascot, and the Stinson Reliant, an early airmail carrier model from the late 1930s. 

The event won’t just be looking toward the past, however. Anne Matlock, the museum’s youth and family programs manager, said that the event is “looking back and looking forward, all at the same time,” with exhibits about the future of the Postal Service.

“We often don’t think about all the ways that the Postal Service is connecting us through our Family, our community, to other spaces,” Matlock said. “We want people to kind of think about those connections, see them in their own lives, and share things with all the Postal Service workers.”

The museum is also teaming up with other Smithsonian institutions for the event, which will include an airmail delivery game with the National Air and Space Museum, a Franklin-focused creative design activity with the National Museum of American History and storytime with the D.C. Public Library. 

The free event will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.