The United States Postal Service turned 250 on Saturday July 26th, 2025, which is more than a year before the United States became the United States when on September 9th, 1776 the Second Continental Congress adopted the new name “United States of America” for what had been called the “United Colonies.” 

The Postal Service has a rich history of delivery since that date in 1775, but their presence and role in the colonies began over a hundred years before then in the 1600’s.

To commemorate the anniversary the Postal Service held multiple celebratory events. 

On Tuesday July 23rd there was a special reception held at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum that was attended by several of the Postal Executives and Officers including the new 76th Postmaster General David Steiner.  

The Mailer Technical Advisory Committee members (MTAC) were honored with an invitation.  GrayHair Software members Dean DeCenio, Adam Collinson, and Deborah Damore joined in on the fun.

On Wednesday July 23rd the first-day-of-issue event for the new 250 year stamps took place outside in the front of USPS headquarters on L’Enfant Plaza in D.C. 

A ‘Benjamin Franklin’ actor introduced the guests of honor, USPS Board of Governors (BOG) Chairwoman Amber McReynolds, PMG David Steiner and National Postal Museum (NPM) director Elliot Gruber.

Two new stamps were released, a 250 Years of Delivering, and a new Forever stamp featuring the first PMG Benjamin Franklin.  

On the actual anniversary, Saturday July 26th, a Postal Family Festival event was held at the NPM to commemorate two-and-a-half centuries of history.  

Many family friendly activities took place, such as scavenger hunts, USPS trivia, stories from the Postal Founding Father Ben Franklin, and much more.

Admission to the museum is free and holds approximately six million artifacts and is one of the largest and most significant philatelic and postal history collections in the world.  

The museum occupies more than 100,000 square feet of the historic City Post Office Building.