Philatelic Museum

The Philatelic Museum is located in the General Post Office building, which dates back to the era of British rule. The building served as a Ring Theatre. It was a place of entertainment where plays, films, etc. were showcased and Indians were restricted entry. The court hearing of the Kakori Trials was held here, and the verdict of death sentence for Ram Prasad Bismil, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan was issued in the historic GPO premises. In 1929, the building was revamped to give it a gothic aesthetic transformation as the postal department building that stands today.

The museum draws a trajectory of historically relevant events that took place in India. It also commemorates prominent figures on a global level. It has stamps with themes of sports, culture, wildlife and literature, among others. A series of frames labeled 1 to 29 are on display in the museum.

Frame 1 has stamps donated by Shri Vinod Nathwani dated from 1856 to 1948 (pre-independence era). Most of the Victorian key type stamps have either been printed through typography or are lithographs. Frames 2 to 8 have stamps on display chronologically, dated from 1947 to 1975. They have stamps from the first Jai Hind series, scenes from ‘Meghadoot’, ‘Abhunasasakuntalam’, portraits of Dayananda Saraswati and Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, and a series of five stamps issued as a part of the Wildlife Week and on the dance forms of India, among others.

Frames 9 to 13 have on display stamps issued from 1997 to 2000. Stamps issued during this period were related to the Gallantry Awards, fifty years of independence, great leaders of India and the first sunrise of the millennium, among others. A total of 267 commemorative stamps were issued by the Indian Post during this period. 

Frames 14 to 16 have a series of cancelled ‘First Day Covers’ on display from 1972 to 1975. The cover with the cancellation of the date and place is unique for every issue of a stamp. These covers have a series on miniature paintings, the symbol of the President’s Bodyguard and the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, among others.

Frames 17 to 23 have a collection of miniature sheets on display from the year 1995 to March 2017. These specially designed sheets are in accordance with the issue and usually contain more than one stamp. Often, a miniature sheet called a souvenir sheet is issued which contains one stamp. The exhibit has miniature sheets with migratory birds, diplomatic relations of India with other countries, the golden voices of the yesteryears, among others on display. Frame 24 has a few cancelled Information Brochures from 1973 on display. It entails technical information like the number of prints, size of stamps, place of printing and date of release of the stamps.

The museum organises several events for school children, along with national and state level letter writing competitions.