Oddly Interesting

It goes without saying that the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's collections are home to some of the most historically significant objects in the history the nation's postal system.

So in honor of the museum's fifteenth anniversary, the museum's staff has selected some of the oddest objects and posted them on the museum's Arago website in a exhibit titled Oddly Interesting.

Nancy Pope, History Curator at the National Postal Museum, writes in the museum's August newsletter, The Postmark, "Such objects often make their way onto exhibit or into articles as the gems of the museum's collections. But those who look deeper into the vaults are rewarded with objects that are unusual, to say the least."

These quirky objects have been grouped into five categories.

They are objects that have been used to carry or mark mail, objects that have traveled through the mail stream, and those worn by mail carriers. Finally, two of these items reveal a connection between animals and the mail.

Shown above, a leather face mask that belonged to Eddie Gardner, one of America's first airmail pilots.

To view the exhibit, click here.