Where
The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) is based in central London.
What
The BPMA is the leading national resource for Britain’s postal heritage. “It cares for 400 years of the post’s past and is custodian of the Royal Mail Archive (a Designated collection) and the collection of the former National Postal Museum,” says director Adrian Steel.
Collection
The museum’s richly varied collection includes some of Britain’s most iconic objects, from pillar boxes, vehicles and sorting machines to hand-stamps, medals and badges. The archive contains the records of the Post Office and Royal Mail from the 17th century to the present day. There is also a growing oral-history collection.
Highlights
Steel says his favourites include a first-edition, uncut copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses, intercepted as an obscene publication in the 1920s. He also likes the artwork created for stamps that were never produced, including the union of Britain and France in the dark days of 1940, Scotland winning the football World Cup in 1978, and Scottish and Welsh devolution in 1979.
Help at hand
The BPMA has 38 full-time staff covering curatorial, conservation and administration work. Twenty volunteers also help out – this is an area that the museum is looking to expand.
Budget
A third of the BPMA’s annual income comes from the Royal Mail for running its archive service; it also provides a free building and services under this arrangement. Much of the remaining revenue comes from charitable donations, also from the Royal Mail. “We seek the remainder of our funding from grant-giving trusts and public funders,” says Steel.
Visitors
The BPMA doesn’t have its own galleries, so most visitors are researchers or go online. “During 2009-10, 2,244 researchers visited the archive in London, and we receive more than 400,000 online hits a year,” says Steel.
The museum reaches other people via events such as a poster exhibition at the London College of Communication in 2009, and at its Museum of the Post Office in the Community at Blists Hill, Ironbridge.
Sticky moment
“In 2007-08, our main archive stores in central London were flooded,” says Steel. “Through a team effort, we managed to keep the waters at bay and, after a good deal of pressure, Thames Water caved in and repaired the burst water pipe nearby that was causing the problem. We’re still waiting for them to reimburse the costs we incurred. Our staff were treated to a slap-up dinner as a thank-you once the worst was over.”
Survival tips
“Combine the best of museums, and in particular their collections, with the best of other professions,” says Steel. “Keep in touch with your users, both current and potential. And make sure you have plenty of advocates on your side to support you when the going gets tough.”
Future plans
The BPMA plans to relocate its archive and museum to a new £19m home in Swindon, in 2013. It received a Heritage Lottery Fund first-round pass and development grant last summer, and planning and further fundraising are now under way.
“This will establish us in an independent home, secure the long-term preservation of our collections and restore full physical access to the museum for the first time since 1998,” says Steel.