SAAM :: Interact

Interact

Visitors have been sending postcards depicting Smithsonian subjects since the late nineteenth century, when the United States Postal Service permitted what it called "private mailing cards." The postcard on the right shows the historic Patent Office Building, now home to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, in 1917.

Today online visitors can share images from the Smithsonian electronically. Check out ecards from across the Smithsonian in our list below, then pick one to send along. To see more historic postcards, visit the online exhibition Greetings from the Smithsonian: A Postcard History of the Smithsonian Institution.


Send a postcard from SAAM's collection at the online photography center Helios.		A variety of animals adorn the National Zoo's postcards, including those of the African Savanna, North America, and Ocean Living, as well as Great Cats and Golden Lion Tamarins.


Fly high with a Wright brothers postcard from the National Air & Space Museum.		Create and print your own stationary with postal decorations at the National Postal Museum.


Choose from among hundreds of artworks in SAAM's collection when sending ecards from 1001 Days and Nights of American Art.		Experience the difficulties of sending a postcard from a wheelchair when you visit the National Museum of American History's Web site What Ever Happened to Polio?—and send an ecard.